Munich Missionary

Good bye, Farewell and Amen

2010-12-27T07:15:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-07T14:04:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-12-01T06:14:00.000-08:00

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

A sincere desire to hear our message...

2010-11-09T18:51:00.000-08:00

November 4, 2010

Dear Fam,

This week had its fair share of slow but sure successes, signs that the work here in Unna is on the up and up. I'm really looking forward to the next seven weeks here and feel like we've got a good basis for me to end my mission with some real solid work.
We've been doing a lot of work with less actives this transfer, and saw a real fruit of our labors this Sunday. All of the less actives we had met with and invited to church this Sunday ended up coming. While the investigators we were hoping for didn't show up, it was great to see so many people we have been working with at church. Another success on Sunday was the unveiling of the new Ward Mission Plan from Daniel and along with that a new program that we are doing with the members. It's something I've done with the members in two other areas in order to build a better relationship with the members that is focused on missionary work. Our presentation on Sunday seemed to go over very well and we seemed to have started something that will really help this ward get back on its feet.
On Thursday we decided to go by a referral that hadn't been successfully contacted in over three months. Apparently they had been on vacation in America for an extended period of time. We arrived at their apartment in the late afternoon, not really expecting anyone to be home, but to our surprise caught them home days after returning form America. We had a great first lesson with Thomas Verhagen (his wife was asleep to due the lingering jet lag), and made another appointment out for next week. He's very skeptical of organized religion, but is at the same time very open and still searching for the truth. When we first were let in to his apartment and I saw all of his America paraphernalia, my first thought was "great, another guy who just wants to talk with us about America with no real interest of hearing our message," but as soon as we started talking I could tell he had a sincere desire to hear our message to see if it is something that could help him come closer to the truth, which is all one really needs at the beginning to embrace the message of the restored gospel. I'm really looking forward to meeting with he and his wife next Tuesday and feel that this man has a good a chance as any of making the steps to Baptism.
Hope this next week proves to be a great one. Take care!

-Andy

The field is still white and ready to harvest

2010-11-01T06:13:00.000-07:00

It`s very strange to think that in two months from now I`ll be celebrating New Years with you all back home. I`ve learned so much on my mission but feel like there`s still so much I need to learn that couldn`t possibly be crammed into two months. In the past couple months I`ve learned a lot about righteous desires and where a good missionary`s desires should be. My desire at this point is to serve the Lord and fulfill what he has called me to do for these next two months, whatever that may be.
The work here in Unna is picking up, granted not as quickly as I would like, but picking up nonetheless. We were able to make contact with some less active families that hadn`t had contact with the missionaries for awhile and made followup appointments with them. Something I feel this ward really needs is some solid reactivation of less active members. I think once the already active members see less actives coming back to church, they`ll be more excited about the gospel and missionary work. We also had a lesson with a former investigator who had one time was very close to baptism, which is a great story in and of itself...
Judith Höhn was a very promising investigator about a year ago. She had been to church several times, made many friends in the ward, and had on at least one occasion a baptismal date. For whatever reason, however, she sort of fell off the map and broke contact with the missionaries and the members. After trying to get a hold of her for quite awhile, we were finally able to make an appointment out with her and brought our Bishop and his wife along, both good friends of hers from the ward. The lesson started off well, we asked her what she remembered from what she had learned previously, and she, to our surprise, proceeded to bear us her testimony of the Restoration and of Joseph Smith. Just as the lesson seemed to be heading in a good direction for at least a new soft baptismal commitment, we received a very skeptical and critical visitor in the form of Judith's cousin. As soon as this lady entered the room, you could feel a very different spirit, and not a good one. As we tried to involve her in the lesson as well, her skepticism and criticism came out fairly quickly. We soon realized that we had been thrown a huge curve ball and had to completely rely on the spirit. For awhile things were somewhat shaky, but the strong testimonies of our Bishop and his wife, combined with the spirit of the Lord being very strong in the room made it a very powerful lesson that softened the heart of this woman who had come to tare us and our beliefs down. We were able to get her to accept a commitment to take a Book of Mormon and read Alma 32. Our Bishops wife thinks that this woman has a very strong influence on Judith, and that if we can get her to let us teach her, than we will be able to help Judith come back with very little problems. This experience was a great reminder for me that when we do everything in our power, the Lord will take care of the rest when situations are out of our power.
I hope you all know how much I love you, and how I always pray for you. I hope you all know how grateful I am for all the support and love I have received from you over the past 22 months. I could never repay you all for that but look forward to at least trying in a couple months. 'till then, the field is still white and ready to harvest, and for the next two months I'll be getting my last bit of hardcore sickle-thrusting in. Chao!

-Andy

My greatest strengths...building relationships

2010-10-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

October 18th, 2010

Man, being in a car area is quite the experience. I feel like I don't know how to do missionary work anymore. When you spend your whole mission in medium sized cities and then come to an area that covers a heck of a lot of ground, you have kind of remold and turn your brain on again to come up with a whole new game plan of how you're going to do the work effectively. That's what Elder Vogel and I are in the process of doing, and I think we've got a good hold on things now after the past two weeks of kinda running around with our heads cut off. Well, maybe It was just me feeling like that. Who knows?
Its really cool to be working with Daniel again. He definitely hasn't forgotten what he learned on his mission. Our ward here has a lot of the same issues, as far as missionary work is concerned, as Erlangen did, and we're taking the things we did in Erlangen that worked, modifying them a bit, and trying them out in this ward. Over the past few days, and especially in church on Sunday, I came to this realization that this ward, and the gap between them and the missionary work that needs to be bridged, may be the reason, or at least one of the main reasons, why I was sent here to Unna. I think that one of my greatest strengths as a missionary is my ability to build good relationships with the members and wards here, and maybe that's just what this ward needs in order to make some progress and heal some wounds that have been caused by fallings away.
Last night we taught a great family whom I think stand as good a chance as anyone of being baptized. They are friends of a member in our ward who has taken them to church with him a couple times before I got here. We taught them about the restoration last night, and watched the Restoration DVD with them. The children are pretty hyper-active, but extremely bright and susceptible to the spirit. One of the boys even participated in our teachings and explained to US a principle with an angelic innocence and clarity that really touched us. The father, Herr Lauderlein, is very open, and very interested in the gospel. He also has that key support system of a member friend, which is always invited. I'm really looking forward to teaching this family and ask for your prayers in their behalf.
Hope you all have a great week. Take care!

-Andy

Working Hard to Be more Obedient

2010-10-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

Once again, I'm writing my first email from my new area. It's been an interesting first week. It's very strange to be in a car area again. I don't know how much I like it. This is kind of a dead area, and it's harder to do a lot of contacting to find new investigators when you're driving around to these little towns and villages all the time. Guess we'll just have to plan things out well and get some good strategies going.
From what I understand, a lot of missionaries have spent their last months on the mission here, sort of puttering out early and coasting through it, not getting much done. That's definitely not what I want to do. I've been working hard to be more obedient and more loving so I can be a better tool in the Lord's hands for my last run, and I don't want to further slow down the work in this area, nor in Germany as a whole for that matter.
My new companion, Elder Vogel, is pretty young on his mission. He's a pretty cool guy though and has a really great taste in music. We've been able to have some pretty solid music discussions and have a common love for Art Rock (David Bowie, Velvet Underground, etc.). I always try and take those things that I have in common with my comps and make that a common topic of conversation in order to build unity and focus on what we have in common instead of our differences.
It was a blast to be able to chill with Daniel again. We went over to his house to talk about the missionary work on Thursday, and it was great to see that he hasn't lost his urgency for the missionary work one bit. This ward has a lot of problems, and needs a strong ward mission leader and some strong missionaries to get things going. I think he and I will be able to do some real good work together like we did in Erlangen. Not too mention we'll have some good laughs as well just like the ole days. After all, when all is said and done, he Achtmann and I are truly partners in crime.
One great thing about this area is that it's gorgeous. It covers half of the Sauerland, which is basically like my first area minus the alps. It'll be nice to have some good aesthetics in my last few months. I'll definitely be able to get some good pictures out of it.

Love you all,

-Andy

New friends to Make, Rewarding Relationships to Build

2010-10-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

I don't quite know how to start this letter without sounding cliche', because what's going down now has been the same ole story for my whole mission...that's right...I've been transferred again! Just when I thought I had FINALLY proved myself faithful, at least when it comes to transfers, the Lord has seen fit to test my faith to the very end. On Wednesday I will be going to Unna (a huge car area in the Dortmund Zone) to work with Elder Vogel. I'll also be the District Leader there. I thought I would be able to get through my whole mission without a leadership position, but hey, what can ya do. The best part about this transfer, however, is that the Ward Mission Leader in the Unna ward is none other than Daniel Achtmann, my best bud whom I served with in Erlangen for almost four transfers! It's gonna be a blast to be able to hang with him for the last few months of my mission.

Unfortunately, my last full week in Wuppertal wasn't particularly eventful. We had a mission wide apartment deep cleaning day on Friday, and a lot of our time was consumed by preparation for it. But now our apartment is immaculate clean, which I must admit is nice.

It's always a wonderful opportunity on the mission to attend conference. We always have the opportunity to see the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions live and the priesthood and Saturday afternoon sessions recorded on Sunday. I must say I've truly come to appreciate conference on my mission. What an incredible blessing it is to have living prophets who speak for the Lord to us, and specifically for us in this time. It's always interesting to me how every conference seems to have overarching themes. This conference to me seemed to be a lot about gratitude, agency, and obedience, all things that I have been pondering on quite a bit lately. I've come to learn the importance of being obedient to even the seemingly little or less important commandments in order to build character and in order to have the spirit in our lives over the past month or so. This is a lesson I should have learned quite a while ago, but I'm grateful that I have learned it, and that my Heavenly Father has given me the opportunity now to improve myself so I can be a better tool in his hands for the next three months.

Last night after Conference, as I said some goodbyes to Members here that I have grown to love, just as I always have in all of my areas, the importance of what I've learned through transfers on my mission really came to fruition for me. I found that it wasn't any easier than it has been before to say goodbye, but I was, and still am, almost totally calm and at peace about it. On my mission the Lord has taught me that, in life, we will always have to say goodbye to people and places that we love, perhaps never to see them again in this life, but if we trust in him, we will always be where we need to be, and there will always be new friends to make, new and rewarding relationships to build with people, and moments and memories that will enrich our lives and continually mold us into the beings that our heavenly father has sent us here to become.

I love you all and pray always for your happiness. Have a great week!

-Andy

A Bright Ray of Sunshine in my Life

2010-10-03T19:29:00.001-07:00

September 27
Just want to quickly report that this week was a good one. We met again with a great family in our ward yesterday who really want to bring some friends of theirs to the gospel. I think if we work with this family in unity we will be able to help these friends of theirs come unto Christ. I would like to now take the opportunity to dedicate the rest of this weeks email to my dear Grandma Donna Lou.

My beloved former mission president, President Condie, told me something just before I left his mission that has helped me a great deal to put into perspective all of the sacrifices we make in this life. As his youngest daughter was married in the Salt Lake temple a few months ago, President Condie, despite his permission to leave the mission for a few days to attend the wedding, had to remain in Germany with his missionaries. What he told me and other missionaries was that, while missing the wedding of his youngest daughter was for him a very challenging and heart-wrenching sacrifice, it was a very small sacrifice compared to the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for all of us.
For me, being here in Germany, unable to say goodbye to my dear grandmother before she left this world, has been a sacrifice indeed. But a very small one compared to the one my savior made for me. He lives. And because he lives, we all will also live again, and be reunited with all of our loved ones to enjoy each others company in the eternities. This is more than just a comforting thought. It's the truth, and I'm grateful for that knowledge in a time when I need the peace that comes from it in order to complete the task that my Heavenly Father has given me here in the mission field.
Grandma was always such a bright ray of sunshine in my life, the absence of which I have felt since I received the news of her passing. I will miss her warm and tender hugs and her incredible sense of humor. This earth has lost a little brightness since her passing, but the heavens, in all their brightness and glory, have become brighter and lovelier upon her arrival. 'Till we meet again Grandma,

-Andy

Life in Wuppertal

2010-10-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

August 12
There are weeks on the mission where the work seems to be unsuccessful and you feel like absolutely nothing worked out...but then you look back at the successful moments of the week and realize that miracles did actually happen. Here in Wuppertal, such a week has just past.
On Monday evening we had an appointment with a family we had found the week before. We had reached their neighborhood a little earlier than we had thought, and decided to do some street contacting with the 20 minutes that we had. We contacted a man just about to enter his apartment building. It seemed that he just saw us as another couple of preachers that weren't going to be able to answer his questions as he very curtly asked us "Who is JESUS? WHY ARE WE HERE? WHERE do we go when we die?!" For the sake of time, we told him that we couldn't explain it all right then, but that we DO have the answers to all of those questions. It was very interesting to see his 180 change of attitude toward us within seconds as he realized that we might have what he was looking for. We made an appointment out with him and will be meeting with him tomorrow. A few minutes after contacting him we also made an appointment out with a young Muslim guy who seemed to have a very genuine interest in the Book of Mormon. Its funny how there are days on a mission where we hit the streets and talk to people for hours and see nothing from it, then a couple days later are able to make out two appointments in fifteen minutes.
On Wednesday, The Düsseldorf and Dortmund zones met in Düsseldorf for a meeting with President Ninow about some new training for missionaries world wide. Preach My Gospel is staying the same, but the First Presidency and the Mission Office have changed the teaching curriculum a little bit to focus a little more on teaching skills and learning how to teach people more effectively and helping them more effectively along their personal journey towards baptism. In other words, The teaching curriculum is changing so that Missionaries can be better at teaching people, not lessons. For the rest of my time on the mission, and then on until May 2011, there's going to be a lot of related adjustments and training to put us up to speed with what is going to be taught in the MTC. I'm really excited to be a part of it because I feel like I'm being a part of new revelation for the Lord's work.
On Thursday, after some unsuccessful hours, we were sitting on a bus rather depressed. A man sitting next to us, however, turned our evening around, by taking an interest in our conversation when he heard us speaking English with each other. He answered a question we had about a stop we needed to get off at, and then we proceeded to ask him if he spoke English and where he learned it and so on. We got off the bus together and told him a little about our message. He informed us that he had already met with Missionaries from our Church, but had a half hour before his next bus and had no problem chatting with us till then. We had a great conversation with him and made an appointment out for this coming Thursday.
As the time is winding down, I'm determined to see some miracles before I go home. I'm very tired, but at the same time have a boost of urgency as my time on the mission goes shorter and shorter. I hope that you all back home are healthy and happy, and I pray for you always. Take care!

-Andy

August 23
It never ceases to amaze me how big of a crime it is to be really unified and get along really well with one's companion. After only one transfer together, Elder McArthur is being transferred to Siegen, and I'll be left in Wuppertal with a pretty new missionary to spend the next transfer running around with my head cut off. Ah well, I guess I'll have to just keep on doing what the good Dr. Thompson prescribed; "Buy the ticket, take the ride." It's been a transfer of hard work and good times, and while I'm sad to see my good friend leave just when we've only begun to really get the ball rolling in our area, I know well enough that this is all in the Lord's hands.
In any case, our last full week together turned out to be what I would call a very solid one. It started off and also ended with some very good experiences while street contacting. Earlier in the week, we decided to take advantage of the city center in the evening and talk to people there. Near the beginning of our trip, a very attractive 20-something girl came walking our way. In such situations, I usually listen to my initial "she's too pretty" instincts and keep on walking, but in my zeal to find someone to teach that evening, I instead listened to the spirit, which was telling me to talk to this girl. She was in a hurry and couldn't talk to us at the time, but gave us here contact information and said that another time she would love to talk to us about God and her faith. We haven't been able to get a hold of her yet, but I still have a really good feeling about this girl and have high hopes that we'll be able to help her come unto Christ.
On Friday we also decided to do a bit of street contacting before a dinner appointment with some members. We came across a Husband and Wife and their 6 year old son sitting on a bench whom I decided, for whatever reason, not to approach. Luckily, the man decided to approach us instead. He told us that he had seen us around quite a bit and wanted to know exactly what it was that we did. We proceeded to share our message with him and his wife seemed to know quite a bit about our church. Their son was a really bright kid and also asked a lot of questions. As we continued to talk to them a young guy about our age came walking up the pathway and interrupted our conversation, mistaking us for Scientologists at first (I guess Scientologists have missionaries that go street contacting and stuff now. Whoda thunk?) and became even more rude when he found out who we really were. As we had already made an appointment out with this family, and were now running late for our appointment, my initial reaction was to tell the young man that if he had any real interest in hearing our message, we'd love to talk to him another time, and then leave. But he continued to badger us, accuse us of being Salesman, and making accusations about our character and motives. That was when Elder McArthur and I decided that our appointment would have to wait. It was time to proclaim our message boldly and stand up for the truth...for Christ. As I kept talking to this family we had just talked to, Elder McArthur bore very powerful testimony to this young man and cleared up his stark misconceptions about our church. This family that had watched the whole thing even started defending us and our religion. What was truly great about the whole affair, however, is that at the end of this heated conversation, this young man's demeanor had completely changed because of Elder McArthur's powerful testimony. It was one of the only times of my mission where I've seen someone's bad attitude toward the church take a 180 turn around within minutes because of the undeniable power of the spirit. I'll always be grateful to Elder McArthur for teaching me how to really reprove with sharpness and show a greater amount of love afterward. I'm also looking forward to meeting with this family that we found in the process tomorrow.
Our most frustrating, yet most promising endeavors here in Wuppertal are currently with two golden families. One is Dennis and Julia, a really cool young Russian couple with two little girls who we've been teaching English to for awhile now. We've built a very strong friendship with this couple, and in our last appointment with them finally talked about how we wanted to share our message with them and their family. Dennis, who was very quiet when I first got here, really opened up and asked a lot of questions. He's a great man, who wants a solid future and foundation for him and his family. This is indeed, a golden opportunity, to teach a young family who want to hear our message. There's just one complication. We found out that they live in Remscheid, which is just barely out of our area and in Sollingen's. If we do end up teaching them more extensively, there's a good chance we'll have to hand them over to the Sollingen Elders. Normally, I wouldn't be as nervous about something like that, just bummed that I wouldn't be the one with the opportunity to teach such a great family. My real concern is that a sudden change to two completely different missionaries would hinder their progress. After all, it was our friendship with them that sparked their interest in the first place. Guess I'll just have to do everything in my power and let the Lord take care of the rest, as always.
Our other awesome family is the Husseini's. They're from Iran, and had had a baptismal date a few years ago that fell out due to lack of contact. We were able to get a hold of Frau Husseini and made an appointment out for the next evening. We found out that she had lived in Utah for awhile and loved our church and it's members. Her husband and two daughters, one 16 and one 22, were also wonderful people and listened intently to what we had to say. There is nothing we want more than to baptize this family, and we would be able to do it pretty easily if it weren't for Frau Husseini's incredibly busy work schedule. Her husband's German isn't good enough to get a job, so she is currently the only one working in the family, and works 8 hours a day every day. This makes it nearly impossible to get a hold of them, let alone meet with them on a regular basis. But, we've felt very strongly that this family needs to be baptized and will keep doing are best to get them there.
IF there's one thing I could ask for from everyone back home this week, it's your prayers. I feel a great weight on my shoulders in my new calling of taking this area over from a great missionary who has been here for almost a year, and will feel very secure knowing that the Lord is by my side every step of the way, and that you all back home are puttin' in a good word with the big man for me.
Love you all. Have a great week!

-Andy

August 30
I've officially survived my first week in Wuppertal without Elder McArthur. It's a tough gig, but it's like I always say, you can get busy workin', or get busy dyin' (said in a narrative Morgan Freeman voice). Naw, but in all seriousness, it's been pretty chill. Elder Durrant is a really cool guy and I'm sure we'll be getting along just fine. It's wierd to be working with someone so young on their mission again. He's in his fifth transfer right now, and leaves a lot of the talking to me, which I can handle. It's just a bit of a new experience.

The first couple days of the week consisted of elder McArthur seeing some last sights before he left Wuppertal and saying his goodbyes. Being transferred from areas I've loved has become almost second nature for me, but for Elder McArthur I could tell it was somewhat of a new and strange experience. He's only had three area's and was in Wuppertal for almost a year. I could tell it was very depressing and shocking for him to be leaving HIS city...his second home where he worked so hard for so long. As bad as I felt for him, however, I must say that I was grateful for the opportunity to be the one staying in the area again. President Ninow doesn't move people around as much as President Condie did, so the chances of me staying in Wuppertal until the end are pretty good. But as I've learned countless times before, you never do quite know what's going to happen.

Elder Durrant and I have been doing a lot of street contacting and going by less actives for the past few days. We haven't seen a lot of success, but had some really good conversations with some great people, as is always the case with street contacting in my experience. It's starting to really get to me, because I know there is someone in this city that is ready to accept the gospel and enter the waters of baptism, I just can't seem to find 'em.

...And as much as I have a vision for the investigators that we already had, they also prove to be a little weary. Wang is still Wang, interested first in improving his English, and second learning a little bit about God. The guy has so much potential, but just can't see the need for having God in his life at this point in time. One thing about him that never ceases to amaze me, though, is the way he prays. His words are always so honest and pure. He literally offers up the thoughts in his mind and the desires of his heart to God in a way that I've never heard any member of the church do. It's amazing how much one learns from investigators as one teaches them.

On Saturday we met with Dennis and Julia. As it often goes on the mission, our lesson with them did turn out exactly as I had hoped. The spirit was there, and I could tell that Julia was feeling something and listening intently, but Dennis, despite his desires to believe in something higher, and find a good foundation for his family, told us three or four times that he would have an extremely hard time believing something he could not see. He told us that as a child he saw some things that caused him to stop praying and believing in God, and since then as not really been able to believe in much of anything. At the end of our lesson I could tell that I was frustrated, which made me feel terrible, like I had perhaps, in my zeal to help this wonderful family, pushed him to hard. I hope and pray that the testimony I bore and the invitations I extended him were taken as they were meant to be given...out of love, and that I didn't hinder our relationship with them in any way.

for the next few days we'll have a brand new missionary, only four days in the field, working with us. His companion will be in Frankfurt for leadership training for he next few days, so I've got a fairly new missionary AND a greeny on my hands. What a circus! Hope all is well with everyone back home. Have a great week!

-Andy

September 6
Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe with the staunch smell of cigarette smoke giving me an irritating headache. The walls are of a soft spongy like material....Like a twinky....like a twinky.

....Sorry, keep starting my emails with Morgan Freeman narrating moments. Now to get down to the meat and potatoes.

We had another tough week here in Wuppertal. The situation is thus; No matter how much finding time we put in, we can't seem to find anyone with interest, and the investigators we already have aren't making any progress and not meeting with us regularly enough. I'm reaching a very challenging and frustrating time of my mission. I want to lead someone to baptism more than anything before I go home, but can't seem to find that person no matter what I do. I feel a great weight on my shoulders at this time, but I think I just need to rely more on the Lord, exercise a little patience, and trust in the fact that if I do everything in my power, all will be well.

The only investigator we were really able to meet with this week was Wang. He's doing as well as ever. Elder Durrant and I decided that the only way we're going to get him to make any progress is by actually extending commitments to him again (duh). On Thursday we gave him a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read until our next visit. I think that as he reads the book of Mormon on his own and prays about it he will feel the spirit and develop the beginnings of a desire to actually take on the gospel. If that doesn't work than I have no idea what would.

Elder Durrant and I are having a good time together. I'm glad that I have the opportunity to work with him and that I once again have a companion that I can work hard and play hard with. We've been trying to be really diligent and have had some pretty funny adventures along the way. We had a really interesting three days with Elder Telfer, the greeny that we took care of while his companion went to the leadership training in Frankfurt. The poor guy had only been in Germany for five day when he came to us and was still smack dab in the middle of the greeny freaked out and scared of everything like a deer in the headlights phase. On the first evening we told him to feel free to get whatever he wanted to eat and he poured himself a bowl of frosted flakes and started eating 'em try in fear of asking for some milk. I finally told him "Hey man, you can have some milk with that if you want." and he timidly replied "Um...yeah...that would probably be a good idea." Man oh man, that first transfer in the field is quite the nerve-racking experience. It was also quite the experience for me this past week to look back at what it's like to be so new when I'm near the end. Made me realize how much I've changed and how much progress I've made.

On Thursday we met with Kenneth, a pretty new convert in our Ward from Nigeria, and had some pretty interesting food. It was rice, with a sauce that consisted of bones with a little meat around the outside of them (Kenneth can eat those things whole, I don't know how he does it), chicken hearts (which were actually pretty tasty) and some type of fish. I always love the way Africans just throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and cook it.

Well, I think that'll do it for this week. Elder Durrant and I are going to check out the Zoo here in Wuppertal. Love you all! Take care!

-Andy

September 20
Unfortunately I was struck with a cold this week, which slowed things down quite a bit. But the week turned out to be better than the last, despite the restrictions.
Wang is still Wang, but is starting to realize the importance of our message. I think he's realizing that the world is a confusing place, and his desire to have a more stable foundation in his life is growing. He always prays at the end of our meetings and every time he prays the spirit is very strong. I've never heard more honest and sincere prayers from anyone in my whole life. It's amazing how someone with no religious background whatsoever can pray like he does.
On Wednesday we met with Rupert Wenniger, a man in our ward who was baptized in 2005 but never confirmed. He has a few big concerns, tithing being one of them, that have kept him from making his baptism complete and enduring to the end, but when we met with him on Wednesday we asked him about how he came in contact with the church and how he gained a testimony, and I think it reminded him of what he had felt when he made the decision to be baptized in the first place. We committed him to meet with us regularly and gave him a soft commitment to be re-baptized and become active in the church again, to which he accepted. He's been pretty flaky with other missionaries in the past, but I've never been the one to let things like that discourage me from working with people who have real potential.
This Sunday we had lunch at the Barluscke's, and awesome family in our ward with tons of potential to do some great missionary work. After lunch we shared a spiritual thought with them and invited them to decide as a family on three or four names of friends or acquaintances they have with whom they'd like to prepare to meet with us. They accepted the invitation and seemed really sincere in they're desire to work with us. For me, this meeting with this family was a particularly poignant experience. As I bore my testimony to them that I knew that there were prepared people in Wuppertal whom we needed to work together to find, the spirit confirmed to me very strongly that what I was saying was true, and in turn bore witness to this family. It was just the boost I needed to continue in all perseverance and diligence in my work here in Wuppertal.
I'm in the middle of a very challenging part of my mission. I'm more tired than ever, and feel often times that I'm runnin' on fumes. The lack of success in our work, combined with my health problems this week, have also caused me to have a few moments of wanting to just give up. But in the depths of such moments, the Holy Ghost has reminded me that the job is not yet done, and that there are still people that I need to help, and most importantly, that the Lord is with me every step of the way. A truly wonderful thing about agency is that when bad things happen to us that our out of our control, it gives us the opportunity to sit back and say, "Ok, what can I learn from this that will make me stronger?"
I'm looking forward to this week, and hope that it treats you all well back home as well. Take care all,

-Andy

"Time is Ticking" an Unnerving Echo

2010-08-02T12:52:00.000-07:00

July 19, 2010
As I sit and contemplate on the events of this past week, I realize what an incredibly foolish "Doubting Thomas" I've been. On Tuesday morning, the day before transfers, Elder Schwitters and I received a call from President Ninow informing us that plans had changed and that I would be going to Wuppertal the next day. For me the news was devastating, and my love for Schweinfurt caused me to forget for a little bit that the Lord has always sent me where I needed to be. The day consisted mostly of me packing, grumbling under my breath, and feeling sorry for myself. I think my biggest frustrations, however, came from first, not having the time to even say goodbye to all of my dear friends in the ward (with the exception of a select few), and second, the feeling I had that I had not done all I could do to accomplish what I originally wanted to accomplish in Schweinfurt, and that I would now never have that time back to do it.
The next morning the Pfisters drove us and all my luggage to the train station. I was still pretty emotional and down, and having to say a rushed goodbye to the Pfisters didn't help. We stopped in Würzburg to meet up with the other Elders and Sisters from our zone heading up north, said some more goodbyes, and then there I was, on the way to Frankfurt and officially in brand new territory. A couple hours later, as the enormous Frankfurt skyline became bigger and bigger on the horizon, panic started to replace sadness. I realized that everything I had become familiar with over the past year and a half was behind me, and that I was, in many more ways than one, entering new territory.
Being at the Frankfurt train station with a bunch of missionaries that I didn't know didn't exactly help my attitude, but the change started once I got on the train heading north up to Düsseldorf. From the moment I got on that train to the moment I laid my head on my pillow that night in Wuppertal, peace slowly replaced all of my panic and heartache. My first evening in Wuppertal was very pleasant. As Elder McArthur and I started getting to know each other we discovered that we had many common interests and were going to get along very well. We had a lesson with Wang, a Chinese student with a great desire to come closer to God, during which I fully realized that the Lord had once again sent me to a new area in his infinite wisdom. When I think about it, it still makes me sad that I had to leave Schweinfurt, and all of the people there that I loved, so quickly and unexpectedly, but I've been really amazed at the peace I've felt about the whole situation since I got here. This peace doesn't come from myself. It comes from the one who knows exactly how I'm feeling and exactly where I need to be. This peace comes from the Atonement. It is times like these when I am so grateful for what my Savior did for me. I should never have doubted that I was being sent to the right place, and am grateful to my savior for showing me once again that as we do our best, all will be well. It's as simple as that folks. Yes we will have trials in this life no matter what we do. There will be pain and sorrow in our lives despite our good actions. But if we do our part, the Atonement makes it possible for us to, in the words of Hunter S. Thompson, charge through the big brick walls in our lives, come out the other side covered in chalk and dust, and look real good doing it.
Love you all! Take care!
-Andy

July 25, 2010
I heard from quite a few Elders that Wuppertal was the rainiest city in Germany. Today I'm finally witnessing a bit of what they were all talking about. Since we left our apartment this morning the wind hasn't let up, but it's a refreshing change of pace amongst a very hot, humid summer in Germany.
My first full week in Wuppertal was a very good one. Elder McArthur and I are getting along very well. We're both semi-liberal intellectual artists and philosophers and enjoy helping each other with our different film and book ideas and sharing angry rants about both left and right-wing politics. Not to mention we do some pretty good missionary work together.
This week we started meeting with Wang, our 26 year old Chinese investigator, three times a week. Last week it was he who actually suggested that we meet more often, which was a very pleasant surprise considering the fact that the ideal situation for a missionary is to meet with investigators three times a week. In our last three appointments with him, we've seen very small steps in the right direction, but also a lack of desire to really test out the gospel. I think Elder McArthur described the problem we're having with him right now the best... Our goals are first: to help him find God and come unto Christ, and second: to help him improve his English while Wang's goals are first: to improve his english, and second: to find God. Wang's biggest setback in coming closer to God is the fact that he is very happy and independent right now, and feels no urgency in coming closer to God at this point in his life. As we've been trying to teach him the importance of not procrastinating the day of one's repentance, it's been interesting for me to see that a lack of trials and hard times can be a bigger stumbling block in finding God than having them.
On Friday we spent the evening in Düsseldorf for a District Leader council. As Elder McArthur attended the meeting, I went with one of the other District Leader's companions to do some street contacting. After the meeting Elder McArthur told me about some discussion that went on there that I pondered about and thought would be worth mentioning. I guess the meeting was focused on how we could improve the work in our Zone, and conversation led to the usual things like missionary skills and strategies. Finally Elder McArthur and Elder Hohman, one of the other district leaders, spoke up and rocked the boat a little. They expressed their concerns for focusing to much on skills, strategies, and temporal things, and a lack of focusing on the spirit and being spritually uplifted. I thought a lot about that and came to the conclusion that sometimes as missionaries, we get so concerned about all the numbers and business and "technical" side of being a missionary, that we lose our focus on the most important aspects of being a missionary, feeling the spirit and having the spirit with us. Without the spirit, this work just doesn't, well, work.
Getting to know this ward has been an interesting experience. The dynamics of a German ward are very interesting, very entertaining at times, and very different from American wards. I kind of forgot that after being in the half German, half American ward in Schweinfurt again. There are some wonderful people in this ward however, and as always, I'm very grateful for the opportunity to get to know them. Every Sunday evening we're over at the Lobeck's for dinner. Brother Lobeck is an old, crusty retired sailor with a mouth to match his old profession. I think he's the manliest man I've ever met and always has something hilarious to say. Our ward mission leader, Brother Schienagel, is very involved in the work and very concerned for our well-being. My love for him grew a lot on Sunday when I had an experience with him that made me realize how much he cares about the missionaries. At the beginning of priesthood meeting, a brother in the ward gave some announcements and as I talked about the ward cookout that happened on Wednesday, he talked about how sad it was that the missionaries didn't bring anyone to the cookout in-front of everyone, making us look like a couple of bums. Brother Schienagel immediately raised his hand and very sternly made sure that it was clear that it wasn't our fault that we couldn't find anyone to accept the invitation to come to the cookout. I've been criticized by members before in other wards, but never had someone else in the ward stick up for us like Brother Schienagel did. His appreciation and love for us was apparent in this situation, and I feel like the missionaries will always be in good hands here in Wuppertal as long as he is the ward mission leader.
Love you all and hope you have a great week!
-Andy

August 2, 2010
It was quite the omen this afternoon to open my email account and see the title of Mom's latest email--"Time is Ticking"--blaring at me when I've already been fully aware of how the time is quickly winding down. Yes, the time has indeed flown by, and continues to tick with an unnerving echo, but it has left me with a new sense of urgency to use the little time I have left to find someone whom I can lead to baptism.
Our mission currently as a goal of 200 baptisms for this year. We are currently at 90 as far as I know, and have some hard work ahead of us in order to reach that goal. Teaching 20 lessons a week has also become our focus because we have also been promised by the area presidency that if we do so, our number of baptisms will double. As excited and ready as Elder McArthur and I were to start getting a lot of lessons in this week in order to make some great leaps and reaching those goals, this past week didn't quite yield the fruits that we were hoping for. For whatever reason, we were able to get a hold of hardly anybody this week, and found almost no success in our own efforts of finding people on the street. The good thing about this week, however, was the fact that Elder McArthur and I have both been on our missions long enough to know that sometimes, no matter how hard you work or what you try to accomplish, some weeks just kind of turn out like our last one. The important thing is to keep doing everything that lies in our power, and then stand still to wait for the Lord to do his part...and unlike us imperfect beings...He ALWAYS does his part. After all, this is HIS work.
Now, back to our part of the deal. At the end of our tough week, Elder McArthur and I had a pretty hardcore planning session and planned on how we can get 20 lessons this week. We have several names of people we can teach (which is always better than just a number...this work is afterall about people), and have also given a lot of thought to how we can work better with the ward. Anybody who knows me knows that I am a dedicated advocate of working with the members, and we have some great families in this ward with a lot of potential. Tomorrow evening we'll be meeting with the Barluschka's, a family who just sent their oldest son to my old mission (tear), and we're hoping that we can ignite their excitement for missionary work and start working with them on finding a friend who they would like to have us teach in their home.
Elder McArthur and I continue to have a good time together. Our moderately liberal opinions blend well together haha, and our common interests have proven to bounce off each other quite well. We've helped each other out quite a bit with our various story, book, and film ideas, and in a discussion about the Inklings, the old writing club with such members as Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, decided that when he comes to BYU we'll have to organize a writing club of our own. We've also helped each other rekindle our flames in this last season of our missions, which is really what's most important.
To close this email, I feel impressed to simply share my testimony with you all. I would like to testify to you of the joy that comes with sharing the message of the gospel to our fellow men. Sometimes they accept it, which brings a joy that one could never imagine, and sometimes they don't. When they don't, it's sad, and some days gets very draining. In Landshut, Elder Ray and I even had a hardcore Russian baptist tell us that we were servants of Satan because we preached the message that we did. It brought joy to my soul, however, to be able to tell him in that moment, without a doubt, that he was wrong...that we were servants of Jesus Christ...that we were called by him to declare this message to the world. I know that that is true... that HE LIVES, and that he leads this church today through the prophet Tomas S. Monson. I'm so grateful that the Lord has given me this knowledge and allowed me to share it with the great people of this great land.
Take care all, and have a great week!
-Andy

June 7- July 12, 2010 Our Munich Missionary is now Our Frankfurt Missionary

2010-07-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

June 7, 2010
Looks like the gloomy weather has let up and summer is finally here. As excited as I am for the change, I'm remembering how unpleasant it is to be in a bike area in the middle of summer. Especially when you spend a whole day riding out to the outskirts of your area to contact potential investigators. But hey, I signed up for this kinda stuff, so all I can do really is just enjoy the journey and savor this precious time on my mission that seems to be winding down faster and faster.
My "second" first transfer in Schweinfurt is almost over, and come July 1st, I will officially be a missionary in the Germany Frankfurt mission. As for the near future, I know I'll be staying in Schweinfurt and am just fine with that. As for what happens after Schweinfurt, I guess I'll just have to buy the ticket, and take the ride.
This week brought us some success, some frustration, and for me, one big realization that the time is flying by, and has been for awhile for that matter, faster than I've been able to fathom. On Tuesday, Elder Schwitters and Elder Nichols met with Annie Locarino, a less active member we have been working with (I was on companion exchange in Würzburg with my ole buddy Elder Wilcoxson). Her Boyfriend Clyde was there and started asking questions about the gospel. Elder Schwitters answered his questions and asked him if he had interest in learning more about what we teach and what we believe. Clyde responded very positively and we'll start teaching him this coming week. I had the opportunity to meet him a couple of weeks ago and can already see the great potential he has in accepting the restored gospel.
Our appointment with Herr Ledermann this week was fairly rough. We were very straight forward with him, as we had planned, told him that there can only be one true church, and that he must accept all of what we teach him, or none of it, but it seemed that there was just no getting through to him. The man is living in denial, and for the past year, since I last met with him, has been wallowing in his own justifications for having a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon while remaining in the Catholic Church to the point where he can twist anything we say, or teach directly from the scriptures, to fit his agenda. As frustrating as it was to get to the point of argument with him for almost an hour and a half, it is good that he now knows where we stand, and that our goal of teaching him is to baptize him, and most importantly, that we do all we do and say all we say because we love him. Teaching him for the next little while will be a real test of my patience and perseverance, but I know that this man has come too far to stop where he is. How he will get pack this big spiritual wall he's run into is a mystery to me, but I just gotta believe that if I do my part, then the Lord can work miracles in this man's life.
We announced our new member program in Sacrament meeting yesterday, and already have a bunch of appointments with the members. We're hoping that what we do with the great members of this ward over the coming weeks will help us to build good relationships with them and bring forth fruits for the missionary work here. As the great members here bore their testimonies yesterday, I realized that this ward deserves great missionaries that will help them to bring about miracles here. My greatest desire is to become THAT missionary.

Hope you all have a great week! Take care!

-Andy

June 14, 2010

It's been a pretty solid week here in Schweinfurt. Our work here is slowly but surely picking up. I've seen areas go from being dead to seeing great success in my Mission lifetime, and have no doubt that the same thing will happen, and is currently in the process of happening here. We've met with quite a few families in the Ward to start our new member program and are already building great relationships with them.

We had a great lesson this week with Herr Bomas, a former investigator with whom the Elders before Schwitters and I had lost contact. He was more open and willing to try out what we teach than anyone I've met with for quite awhile. We made out what we call 3x4's with him, where we'll be meeting with him 3 times a week for 4 weeks, and also asked him if he would be baptized if he discovered for himself that what we teach is true, to which he positively and openly replied yes. This man has as good a chance to be baptized as anyone I've met with, and Elder Schwitters and I are both really excited to see what the Lord does with him.

On a less inspiring but interesting enough to mention note, I've had two bike accidents in the past two weeks. But I must say, I'm pretty proud of myself for going almost a year and a half on the mission without having a bike accident. Anyway, the first one was on companion exchange with Elder Wilcoxson (an ole buddy from the MTC) in Würzburg. How it all went down was, I was riding Wilcoxson's companion's bike, which has really thin wheels, and got the front wheel caught in the track of the street trolley and ended up flipping over the top of the bike and rolling about 20 feet in downtown Würzburg in front of the entire city. The funny thing was, I was wearing a jacket, yet my shirt was completely dirty, but nothing hit my tie.

My second accident happened this week. We were cruisin' down a large steep hill and I started coming up on an older lady on her bike that I could tell was about to veer right in front of me to turn into her house. If it weren't for the car coming up the hill at the same time, I would have just been able to veer around her, but there wasn't enough room and enough time to stop, so I ended up just barely clipping her and sending here crashing over her bike on to the road. Luckily she wasn't seriously injured at all and was super nice about the whole thing. In any case I was able to check another box on the "Typical Missionary Experiences" list.

This week we'll be seeing the Condie's for the last time on the mission. They'll be visiting our Zone one last time before the change over to the Frankfurt mission. It'll be a tough goodbye for all of us I think. It was strange this past week to have my LAST interview with President Condie, and realize that the Wisdom of this amazing man that I respect and admire so much would no longer be available to me as it has been for my entire mission. But hey, this is the Lord's work, and I know that he's put me where I need to be. As he always has.

Have a great week and stay classy!

-Andy

June 21, 2010

Dear Sisters and Elders in the great Nürnberg Zone,

Greetings from wet, but ever so green München! I hope you’ve had a successful weekend and are ready for a new transfer, which, beginning 30 June 2010, will include being introduced to Sister and President Ninow. You should prepare yourselves for what will be the best part of your mission!

Thank you for your goodness and good works. After you’ve prepared yourselves today, please use your best efforts to find new investigators and teach as many lessons as possible this week.

With love and appreciation,

Robert G. Condie

Germany Munich/Austria Mission

June 28, 2010

Well here I am on my second to last day in the Germany Munich/Austria Mission. As every missionary in every mission would say I'm sure, I've had the opportunity for the past year and a half to serve in the best mission in the world! It's been quite the adventure, from lots of success to times of almost no success, from great companions to...well....great companions that gave me a lot to learn and think about, and always something of eternal significance to do and learn. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the new Frankfurt Mission now, and even more grateful for the opportunity to be in Schweinfurt for at least the next nine weeks. When I came on my mission I thought that a lot of weaknesses I have would vanish rather quickly, but as it turns out, it hasn't quite worked out that way. I find myself still working on those weaknesses at a point where I thought I would be much, much further in my personal progress. Through my frustrations, however, I've realized that the atonement has made me realize that I don't need to be perfect in order to be a worthy representative of Jesus Christ. As Nephi said, "I know in whom I have trusted." The Saviors ultimate sacrifice has taken on a new meaning for me on my mission, allowing me to overcome things I never thought I'd be able to overcome and giving me the strength to bear witness of him and his restored gospel.

As Jim Morrison once said, "No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn." Right now for me is the dawn of a new beginning, in a new mission, and the last fourth of my mission. I am more determined than ever to make this last six months the BEST six months of my mission. I hope you all back home now how much I love you and pray for you always. Take care and have a great week!

-Andy
July 5, 2010
As of last week I am now officially a Missionary in the Germany Frankfurt mission. For the past months I've been sitting around talking about how ready I am for the change, how I've been there done that, but now that it's actually happened I'm finding that it's quite a bit more stressful for me than I thought it would be. On Friday we met in Nuremberg with President and Sister Ninow. I think it's a rather obvious thing to say, but they are definitely not the Condie's. President Ninow was a pretty big business man for the Huntsman Corporation, and it shows in his style as a mission President. A couple of times, Elder Schwitters kinda leaned over and said to each other, "Hey, do we have Donald Trump for a mission president now or what?" Despite the total difference being something I was completely unprepared for, I'm very excited to be working with President Ninow for these last six months of my mission. He and Sister Ninow have a great energy for this work, which is probably what I need to "keep it up" in the last hump so to speak. The poor things have taken parts of three other missions into theirs, and are in the process of combining four mission cultures into one. I really like their approach, however, which consists of starting from the ground up, learning from each other and building a whole new mission culture. Amidst all the headaches of dealing with new procedures, feeling like a greeny again, and possibly being transferred out of the only place in the mission where I know anybody, I'm still sure that the Lord always puts us where we need to be.

As of now, however, I'm still in Schweinfurt. The longer I'm here the more I grow to love this ward. Being away from one's family is a heck of a lot easier when he has an amazing ward family and feels loved and taken care of. Yesterday in Fast and testimony meeting, as I listened to the touching testimonies of members that I know very well and have a deep love for, I was reminded once again of the great gift that the Lord has given me in allowing me to serve in Schweinfurt. This ward deserves a Missionary that will give them his best, and it is my greatest hearts desire to be that missionary as long as I'm here.

Hope you all have a great week. 'till next time!

-Andy

July 12, 2010

Hope your week hasn't even been close to as stressful as mine. I can't remember the last time a week has gone by this slow for me. I think within the past few days I've developed a tumor, a hernia, a couple of ulcers, and was not too far away from having a complete mental and physical collapse...OK it might not be as bad as all that, but fetch...I was stressed. Now let me explain to ya why.

The Frankfurt mission transfer cycle is three weeks later than the Munich mission, so before the switch we were all told that we wouldn't be touched by it and have a nine week transfer as opposed to the usual six week transfer. Well, as we should have guessed, President Ninow had something else in mind. After having our Nürnberg zone under his watch for two weeks, President Ninow decided he was going to mix things up right away in order to integrate this mission fast. According to my good buddy Elder Bailey, still one of the Zone Leaders here, informed me that President Ninow is more than a little unhappy with our performance as a zone, the two biggest problems, according to him, being disobedience and "faith to find." Our area was even specifically mentioned due to our low numbers over the past two weeks. At this point everything was still speculation, but what we did know was that the chances of Elder Schwitters or I being transferred from Schweinfurt was very likely. As you all may remember, my last tenure in Schweinfurt was ended abruptly by a mid-transfer change, and the thought of that happening again, especially after all the work Elder Schwitters and I have been doing to build great relationships with this ward, was nauseating. It was this news that made the week inch along as we tried to do what we could to have at least a last good week before the transfer call came.

In our old mission, transfer calls came on Sunday morning. In the Frankfurt mission, however, transfer calls come Saturday night, which I soon discovered leaves me in stress all day anticipating the call that could drastically change the next few months of my mission. And sure enough, after hours of nauseating stress, our phone rang at 9:15 Saturday evening...but it wasn't a transfer call...it was Elder Wilcoxson, our District Leader, informing us that we wouldn't be getting transfer calls until Sunday evening...which meant another entire day of waiting with stressful anticipation, on top of going to church and not being able to tell the ward anything except, "We might be transferred so in case I don't see a again, bye, but if I'm still here we'll see ya in couple days at our appointment." By yesterday evening though, at the urge of Elder Schwitters, who can handle transfers much better than me, I was much calmer as I ceased pacing the floors and just sat, breathed, relaxed, and found great solace in the scriptures. I read a lot of comforting verses from Doctrine and Covenants, which strengthened my testimony once again that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God (there's no other way that the words I read could be so comforting if they weren't revelation from God). As 10:30 finally hit with no phone call, we thought for a second that we might be in the clear and that by some miracle we would be together for another transfer. We decided to call Elder Bailey to make sure that calls were done before we went to bed, however, he quickly informed us that, not only were they still making calls, but that we should expect one. My false sense of security faded quickly and sure enough we received a call from the assistants 15 minutes later. To my great relief, I discovered that I would be staying in Schweinfurt and receiving Elder Craighead as my new companion, a "hardcore ex-zone leader" who will be going home after our transfer together. Elder Schwitters is heading up north to Wuppertal, and needless to say is not too happy about it. Elder Jenkins, the assistant, asked us to be honest in our feelings about the change and we told him that it wouldn't have been our first choice, but we do know that whatever happens is the Lord's will.

I'm so grateful to my father in heaven for letting me stay here to further the work in Schweinfurt. I'm still a little stressed about being as under the radar as I think I'll be for the next six weeks, but I also know that all will be well if I just do what the Lord has sent me here to do. I can't quite find the words to describe my feelings of lingering stress mixed with a new calm and vigor for my assignment over the next six weeks, but for anyone that does want to know exactly how I feel at this moment, look up the song Alive by Pearl Jam. I think It would sum 'em up pretty good.

Love you all. You are in my prayers as always, and I humbly ask that you keep me in yours as well. Take care and keep on truckin'!

-Andy

April 19 - May 31st Time FLIES

2010-07-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

April 19, 2010

Another week has gone by in Nuremberg, and the weather today is awesome. It seems that Winter has finally sunken away until its next run, and I look forward to the coming months. I'm getting a lot more Vitamin D these days which gives me a new sense of optimism with the coming season. The only problem is I'm in a situation where I can utilize it, cause a type of tiring stir-craziness that I haven't yet quite felt on my mission. My comp is near the end of his mission and has totally run out of gas. He's not gonna change and the only thing I can do is be patient and be his friend. The lack of work is quite frustrating, but I guess I gotta just do what I can and leave the rest to the Lord.
For the past two weeks our apartment was being renovated by Bru. Haid, a member in our ward who has his own renovation business. He and his wife have a friend from Latvia working for them and living with them and we were able to get to know him and even teach him at their house last Monday. It was a very spiritual appointment...one of those where you know that the person you are teaching has been put in the situation that they are in at that point in time to accept the gospel. I look forward to teaching him some more and am grateful for families like the Haid's who exercise their Christlike charity to take someone in and share the Gospel with them.
Hope all is well back home. I continue to pray for you individually, that your concerns and needs will be taken care of. Trust in the Lord, and all will be well.

Love,

-Andy

April 27, 2009

First of all, thank you for your prayers. I felt them, and they definitely worked. It was a great week with lots of success. Elder Hartmann and I have really tried to do our part to get rid of some of the bad habits of this area and make it more successful, and it's paid off. Herr Labuda is feeling much better about things now. We had a great joint-teach with him and our Branch President. He worked with Herr Labuda on figuring out a way where he could pay tithing and feel more secure about it. At the end of the appointment there was a great spirit and I could tell Herr Labuda felt very good about everything. I feel very confident that he will be baptized soon enough and remain a stalwart member.
We also have a new investigator family. They're Russian and don’t speak German very well, but they have a 13 year old daughter that speaks pretty well and translates for us. Unfortunately I won't be able to meet with them and see their progress because guess what... I'm being transferred! I leave for Shweinfurt (all I know is that its north of Munich) on Wednesday to work with Elder Erickson.
Every Sunday morning at the end of the transfer, the missionaries get their transfer calls. If you get a call from the A.P.'s, one of you will be transferred. If you get a call from President Condie, one of you will be an A.P., a zone leader, or a mission secretary. If you get don't get a call, you stay together in your same area for another transfer. Anyway, all last week I was terrified that Elder Hartmann would be transferred and the weight of this area would be on my weak, inexperienced shoulders. Yesterday morning was the usual routine, at least for about a half hour. Elder Hartmann's alarm went off at 6:30, he got up to go to the shower, and I stayed in bed haha. Only I wasn't sleeping soundly like usual. I was laying there nervously anticipating the phone call that would hold my destiny for the next six weeks. As I lie there I prayed to my heavenly father, and said "Father if it be thy will, please let Elder Hartmann stay with me in Kaufbeuren for at least another transfer."
Well the minutes Dragged on, and just as I was starting to feel comfortable and think that we wouldn't get a call, I heard the faint buzzing of our cell phone in the other room. Hear it comes I thought. So I answered with a shaky "just got out of bed" voice and it was Elder Van Wagnen, one of the A.P.'s. "Elder Andersen," he said, "You're needed somewhere else." God had answered my prayer, just not in the way I expected. Elder Hartmann would be staying in Kaufbeuren, but I would be leaving! Gotta admit I was pretty shocked all yesterday. I didn't think for a second that I would be transferred. But so it is that God doesn't answer our prayers solely based on our desires and limited vision, but also on What he knows is best for us and for those we serve, and with his all-seeing eye. I would be kidding myself if I didn't admit that I was a little bummed and scared for many reasons. I was just starting to really build relationships with the members in this area, and I was just starting to feel like I really was getting into the swing of things here. And It’s been such a great blessing to have a companion that I get along with so well and have such good times with. It’s always scary to venture into the unknown but It’s comforting when I know that it is divinely inspired. I’m grateful for the great time I've had in my first transfer and know that God will send me where he needs me and bless me for my service in this next transfer, and for the rest of my mission.
Another side note: Elder Hartmann's new companion is Elder Ray, who was in my group and a good buddy of mine in the MTC. The guy's a stud and I know he's going to do some great work here.
I love you all and pray for you every day. I thank you again for your prayers. They keep me going and bless my work here. 'till next time!

-Andy

May 3, 2010

Unbelievable that this will be the last full week of the transfer. Next Sunday we will be getting transfer calls. Its a pretty sure thing that Elder Sanchez will be leaving and I'll be staying. The chances of me going to the Frankfurt mission are looking greater and greater. I've been kinda worried about that but not so much anymore. I think I've finally reached the point where I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will always be sent where the Lord needs me.
Before I inform you of anything that happened this week, I have to share with you an amazing experience I had last week that I forgot to write about. I guess I'll start here...In Schweinfurt there is a wonderful family in the ward, the Heilein's. They are the strongest members I know, but the thing is, they aren't even actual members, or at least haven't been for quite some time. Twelve years ago, Sister Heilein and her children were introduced to the Gospel by a senior couple. Sister Heilein was very quickly converted, but her husband didn't want anything to do with the church and for the past twelve years has refused to let Sister Heilein or their three wonderful children be baptized. About a month ago, however, Ann-Kathrin, the oldest daughter, turned 18 and, as she had been planning on doing for years, was baptized. Apparently, the family wasn't even sure if their Dad was going to come, but he did, and after the baptism Sister Heilein asked him, "Well, did you feel anything?" He hesitantly answered, "Yes, I felt something." and a few weeks later gave permission for his wife to be baptized. Fortunately, I had the rare privelage of attending Sister Heilein's baptism last Saturday. The couple that had taught them twelve years ago returned and the brother actually was able to perform the baptism. I'm so grateful that I was able to witness one of THE miracle stories of this mission. When I was in Schweinfurt, we actually had a long talk with Brother Heilein about letting his family be baptized and he wouldn't budge. I never thought that I would still be around to see Sister Heilein's baptism, but the Lord softened Brother Heilein's heart and his wife and her children are now able to partake of the blessings that they've been waiting ages for.
We also had the rare privelage of a visit from a general authority to our mission this week. Elder Couse´ of the seventy came to our mission for a mission tour and, as any good representative of the Lord would, gave us some great council that will really help our mission. He introduced to us a new way of giving a first lesson, and actually used Elder Sanchez and I for an example. He had us come up and tell him about an investigator we were planning on giving a first lesson to soon. Naturally, we chose Belma. He then proceeded to give us a new kind of first lesson that would help us to more effectively prepare the investigator to meet with us regularly and commit to baptism. As we went through the activity I kept thinking to myself, This is exactly what Belma needs. I look forward to meeting with her this week and trying out this new "first lesson" which I think will prepare her very well to be thinking about baptism. After the meeting I went up to Elder Couse´ and thanked him for showing us this tool that would help our investigator so much, and he asked me to email him and let him know of the results. Me and my big mouth :(
I hope all is well back home and I can't wait to see you and talk to you on Sunday! 'till then, stay classy!

Love,

-Andy

May 10, 2010

How great it was to once again hear your voices and see your faces last night. It was great to talk to you as if time had not ever past. Its been interesting on my mission to note that, although we've been apart for almost a year and a half, I feel closer to you than ever before.
Just to quickly update for everyone else who reads this email, I've been transferred back to Schweinfurt! It's kind of a bummer to leave Nuremberg after only being here for six weeks, but I'm really excited to go back to an area that I loved so much! I can't wait to work with that wonderful ward again and check up on some people that I taught a year ago at this same time.
These six weeks in Nuremberg have given me a great chance to do some real reflection and self improvement. I feel more "square with the lord" than ever before and better about who I am and who I've become on my mission. I feel ready to step up to whatever task the Lord asks of me and hope that Schweinfurt has some good hard work for me to do there.
Tonight will be our last meeting with Martins before Elder Sanchez and I both leave to our new areas. We'll try setting a baptismal date with him and then we'll be handing him over to Elder Bailey and his new comp. Elder Ellis. Bailey's a stellar missionary and I feel really good about him being the one to prepare Martins for baptism. As of yet, we're not quite sure if we'll be able to see Belma before we leave, but my worry for her is calming. I know that the Lord is with her and is preparing her to receive the gospel. Sometimes as a missionary you get frustrated when people don't just accept what's in front of them right then and there and have to take a step back and remember that many people need years and sometimes a lifetime to be fully ready to accept the gospel.
As always, you are all in my prayers. Love you and have a great week!

-Andy

May 17, 2010

Last Thursday I officially arrived in Schweinfurt. It’s been quite the trip to be again in the city where I discovered my love for missionary work and learned a lot of what made me the Missionary I am today. I don't know if it's because I screwed up the first time I was here, or If it's because I was on to something and wasn't quite given the chance to finish what I had started, but in any case the Lord has given me another chance to do some good in this wonderful city with a wonderful ward, and wonderful people that need the gospel.
It’s been nice to enjoy the Schweinfurt apartment. It's a nice one, and we had moved into it last year four days before I left to Erlangen. I was always kinda sour about that, and now I get to enjoy the fruits of my labors.
I received a very warm welcome from the ward on Sunday, from old and new faces alike. It was great to go to Church on the first Sunday of a new transfer and feel like I was coming home rather than entering mysterious waters. I'll never forget the warm spirit I felt the very first time I attended church in Schweinfurt, and that same spirit was definitely there yesterday. I'm remembering pretty quickly the feelings and people that made me love Schweinfurt the first time was here.
I'm hoping we can get some solid work done this week...that we can help a lot of people. It's been awhile since I've really been able to sink my teeth into the work, and I want to get back into the mix ASAP so I don't fizzle out in the last eight months of my mission (fetch, I'm getting old). Maybe that's why I've been sent back here...to get a boost of the right kind of motivation to lose myself in the work again.
Love you all and pray for you always. Have a great week!

-Andy

May 24, 1010

We had a nice week here in Schweinfurt. It's great to be here again and be with this great ward. We had the opportunity this week to meet with a few of the great families here. One of which had been having a lot of problems last time I was here. Elder Erekson and I had loved this family and have been very concerned about them for our entire mission, and it was great to be at there house yesterday evening and see how great things are going for them now. This family has never left my prayers and I am so thankful to my heavenly father for taking this family under his wing and helping them get back on top. Elder Scwitters and I have been doing some brainstorming for how we can work closely with this great ward, and I'm already seeing that we will see great fruits come from building strong relationships with the wonderful families here.
At Zone Conference on Tuesday, President Condie very upfront and honestly informed us that almost all of us would be staying in the zone for the change to the Frankfurt mission. As the change comes closer and closer, it's getting harder and harder to imagine not being in the Germany Munich/Austria mission under the leadership of our great mission president who I have come to love and admire so much. A strange and new as it'll all be, I already learned well enough on my mission that this IS the Lord's work, and that he ALWAYS puts us where we need to be in order to fulfill his will. It is my hope and prayer that I can bring forth great work in the Frankfurt mission under the inspired leadership of President Ninnow and be as loyal to him as I have been to President Condie.
The weather here in Germany has been pretty bad for the past four weeks. Cold, cloudy and rainy. But it seems that things are finally clearing up, and as it is a lot of the time in Germany, we'll be going straight from Winter to Summer. But as you well know, me being the Summer person that I am, it's no skin off my back. As a matter of fact, it's about fetchin' time. As big of a pain as it is sometimes doing missionary work in humid heat, it's a lot better than walking around freezing and never seeing the sun.
Hope the weather back home is as good as it is here, and I wish you all a wonderful week.
Keep on truckin'!

your pal,

-Andy

May 31, 2010

I think I'm gonna go nuts if this weather doesn't let up. It's already almost June and we've had next to nothing but cloudy skies and solid rain fall. Luckily I get to endure all of this gloomy weather in Schweinfurt, one of the best areas in the mission. The work is really slow right now, but it truly is a great blessing to be here. The ward here is wonderful and has so much potential to do so much good. Elder Schwitters and I have made some plans on how we can effectively and more closely work with this ward and are hoping to see some great fruits from it. It was here, almost exactly a year ago, that I learned that the best way to do missionary work is through the members, and I can't wait to see the fruits from working closely with this great ward again.

Our one investigator that we happen to be working with at the moment is Herr Ledermann, an investigator that has been investigating the church since I was here. It's been slightly frustrating to see the incredible lack of progress in him over the past year since I last met with him. This man has been a dedicated Deacon in the Catholic Church for many, many years. Almost years ago, he grew a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith, but because of his deep roots in Catholicism, has not been able to let go and decide to join the church, and has for the past year been wallowing in justifications of having the testimony that he has, and still remaining in the catholic church. I would never pretend that he leaving the Catholic church wouldn't be a big sacrifice, because it would...a bigger sacrifice than I have ever even come close to making in my life. But despite of all that, it is still painful to watch this great man, a man whom Sister Koralewski had a vision of officiating in the temple, run into this big wall over and over again, when the blessings of being baptized into the Lord's church are right in front of him. After almost hours of discussing and sweating over what we should do with this investigator to help him, Elder Schwitters and I both came to the conclusion that the best way we could help him is by giving him a sink or swim situation. For too long the Missionaries here have, for lack of a better term, babied Herr Ledermann, and that hasn't helped him to make any progress at all. In my view, there are only two churches on the earth that can possibly be the true Church...Us and the Catholics...Why?...because we are the only two churches, at least the only two churches I know of, that claim priesthood authority. Now is the time for Herr Ledermann to choose. The time for middle ground is over. Until this Friday when we meet with him, my prayers will be focused on him and his openness to accept what we present to him, and as always, your prayers on his behalf will be most helpful.

Love you all. Take care and have a great week!

-Andy

April 12, 2010

2010-04-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

Glad to hear you all had a good spring break. Hope the weather is getting better there. Here the weather has been pretty darn good but the past couple days have been pretty gloomy. That's just kinda how it is in Germany in April though. Next month will for sure be the real start of summer. Lookin' forward to it.
Had a decent week here in Nuremberg, and a great birthday. Nothing special, just a zone conference. Zone conferences are always great though. I always love coming together with all the other missionaries and getting a chance to see some old buddies. Elder Anderson and Elder Jensen (Two of my main bros whom I worked with in Erlangen) are now working together in Coburg. It was great to see both of them and talk about the good times we had together in my old favorite area.
Me and Sanchez are getting along really well. I'm not working as hard as I'm used to, but I'm pretty sure that the best thing I can do right now is to go with the flow and just try and be a friend to him. Anything else just wouldn't work. In any case though, he's a really good guy with an awesome testimony and great knowledge of the gospel. He's also a great, straight-forward teacher, which I really respect.
Its cool living with Elder Bailey and Elder Waldvogel. They're both fun to live with and are great missionaries whom I can learn a lot from. We've already had quite a few good times together. We actually had a bit of an adventure last night when Elder Bailey cut himself on a hinge of an old book shelf last night. It was a clean, but really deep cut and we all went with him to the hospital with a member last night at about 11 pm. Within a half hour he was sowed up and good to go, and we went back home. It was really funny to see Elder Waldvogel get all giddy and excited about the whole situation (he's studying to be a doctor, so he's one of "those guys"). Elder Sanchez was totally chill about the whole situation, as he is in all situations, and I went into Woody Allen mode and started freaking out about it all, half joking half not.
On Saturday night we had a baptism in our ward of an investigator who just moved here from Ansbach. He was also confirmed yesterday. He's a young guy, 24, whom Elder Sanchez and I plan to visit him frequently to make this a smooth transition for him and help him to feel as comfortable as possible. He'll also be a great tool in the lord's hands for the missionary work here in Nürnberg.
I was sad to hear about Uncle Don's passing. I always enjoyed being in his company. I know that he is having a great reunion with grandma Wanda and grandpa Karl on the other side. It is a great blessing in times like this to have a knowledge of our heavenly fathers plan of happiness.
I'm hopin' we can get some good work done this week. We have a lot of less actives in our area and I think we can do good work with them. I still miss Landshut but I'm really excited to be here as well. Love you all and pray for you always. Till next time...

-Andy

April 6, 2010

2010-04-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

Hope you weren't worried that you wouldn't be getting an email this week. Yesterday was a big German holiday so we had p-day today instead.
Once again, I've survived transfers and am settling in in my new area. I spent most of my mission thus far in the Nürnberg Zone (Schweinfurt, Erlangen) and working in Nürnberg has almost felt like coming home. My new comp., Elder Sanchez, is a good guy. He's got four months left and really wants out of Nürnberg. He's kind of got a bad rap in this mission for being what we refer to here as a "schwarz" missionary, but I like him a lot and am focusing on being his friend and recognizing his positive traits. Its hard not too be working as hard as I have been, but I'm just trying my best to do my part and have faith that success will come from that.
It's my first time living in a four man, and as you could probably imagine, I'm havin' a blast. We live with the Zone Leaders, both awesome guys. Elder Bailey was my last district leader and is a total stud. He actually is a pro ski jumper and would have been in the Vancouver Olympics, but he came on his mission instead. Elder Waldvogel is also really cool. He's a big family guy fan so we've bonded by quoting it.
Not a ton has happened here thus far, but I did meet Joe, an investigator here with a baptismal date. He's a really cool guy and I guess has made a lot of changes. We'll be meeting with him tonight and committing him to come to church regularly.
What an amazing General Conference we had this past weekend! I'm so grateful for the knowledge that we have prophets, seers, and revelators again on the earth today. Both of President Uchtdorf's talks were my favorite this time. One thing he said in his Sunday morning talk sticks out most in my mind: "Without a love for God, and our fellow men, our church is only the form without the substance." That is a true principle, one that I have come to know and love very well on my mission. It is my hope and prayer that over the next year I can continue to develop my love for God, and for the people here, for it is through love unfeigned that I will be able to successfully bring people unto Christ.
Wish you all a great week. You're in my prayers as always!

Alles Gute!

-Andy

March 29, 2010

2010-04-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

I guess its just too much of a crime in this mission to work in an area you love, with a companion you love, with people you love. Just when I thought it was unthinkable that I would be transferred, the call came on Sunday that I would be leaving Landshut and going to Nürnberg. For four months I've been working with these people and the success in this area has really started to take off in the past month, and I feel as though I've been plucked out of here just when I was really about to see the fruits of my labors. To make matters more foreboding, If I'm in Nürnberg for more than one transfer all be absorbed into the Frankfurt mission. It seems that the Lord knows me all to well, and knows the best way to really test my faith.
It does do me a lot of good, however, to say that I've left every area better than I found it, and Lanshut is no different. This past week has been our most successful week yet. Br. Hardtbauer is doing very well and WILL reach his baptismal date. Our last appointment with him was tough, but very spiritual. He lacks the faith in himself that he can be done with alcohol in time for his baptism, but his testimony and inner strength has blossomed since the first time I met with him.
Monika is doing great. She and Mario will be getting married next week, and in a couple more weeks she will be baptized. As hard as it is for me to know that I won't be here for her baptism, I'll never forget her and her example to me as one who truly came unto Christ and allowed him to change her life. She's well on her way to eternal life and will always be in my prayers.
For the past couple weeks we've had some really interesting experiences with finding new investigators. Last week we were walking home along the river at the end of the day and ran into a young guy, drunk as a skunk, trying to call his friends to come pick him up. Problem was, he had fallen and broke the buttons off his phone. Elder Ray and I decided that we couldn't just leave him alone the way he was and did our best to walk him home as quickly as we could. Once we reached his apartment we found out that it wasn't even his apartment at all. We had to leave him there but found out where he lived and went by his place last week. It was almost strange to see him not drunk and crazy the second time, but also a relief to actually meet him and find out that he was a really nice guy. One of his roommates thanked us over and over again for finding him the week before. "Any other person would have just left him there," She said, "Thank you so much. It's amazing to me that you would help him." We made an appointment out to come back this week and share our message with him. I'm excited to hear about what becomes of him in the near future.
We had another great finding experience this past week. After contacting a potential investigator in Kumhausen, we decided to door a building by the bus stop before we left back to Landshut. We doored into a nice lady who let us in and proceeded to tell us how she had become converted to Christ after seeing him very vividly in a dream. She even had a framed Simon Dewey painting of Christ on her wall. We had a great and very spiritual first lesson with her and made an appointment out at the end.
Hr. Reichl, our other new investigator, has really enjoyed the book of Mormon and is now thinking about a baptismal date. He's a very humble man and has shown me how humility is key to feeling the power of the holy ghost.
My time in Landshut has been arguably the toughest time of my mission, and also in a sense the greatest. I've learned so much and grown more in a short period of time than I ever have in my life before. As huge of a bummer as it is to be leaving, I know that the Lord is in it, as always, and that I have some important work to do in Nürnberg. Till next Week...

-Andy

March 22, 2010

2010-04-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

What a great week its been for us and for the people of Landshut. The work here is still on the up and up and I feel the Lord's love for these people, and for me, now more than ever.
After what has seemed like eternity of waiting for the time to be right, we've finally set a baptismal date with Monika Hein! She and Mario will be married on the 7th of April, then she will be baptized on the 25th. Its been such a great blessing to be able to teach Monika, and witness her conversion. She's been a great example to me of someone who has accepted Christs sacrifice for her and allowed the atonement to purify her and change her life. But as it always goes, once you set a baptismal date with someone, Satan kicks into high gear and works twice as hard on 'em. As much as it gives me the incentive to work twice as hard and remain worthy of the spirit, I'm not worried at all about Monika. The spirit is so strong with her right now that there's nothing that can stop her.
Herr Hardtbauer is doing as well as can be expected. Still struggling with Alcohol, but he came to all three meetings of church this Sunday, which was a big step for him.
We had some great experiences this week with finding. On Wednesday we met with a man in Freising (a little town in our area right between Landshut and Munich) who had been referred to us from some other Elder's who had somehow wondered into our area and found him for us. His name is Nasif Tschabi, a Muslim from Africa. He was very open and enjoyed what we had to say quite a bit. When we explained what we understand as the role of Jesus Christ and his atonement, specifically that we must do all that we can do be saved by his grace, he said that it was the first time that it made sense to him. "I've asked a lot of Christian leaders, teachers, and priests," he said, "and I never found an answer as good as the answer you just gave me." Our meeting with him strengthened my testimony that we do have the FULLNESS of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that our doctrine IS his doctrine.
Back in Erlangen I developed a great love for the young people here in Germany. It was a great blessing for me to get to know so many of my generation with such strong faith and moral values. Here in Landshut I haven't really had a lot of interaction with people my own age, but on Thursday, on the train back from Landau after an appointment with Monika, we had a wonderful conversation with a girl who was on her way to Munich. After talking to her for about 15 minutes we asked her about her beliefs and she told us that she believed in the Bible and in Jesus Christ. We taught her about the restoration and about the Book of Mormon and she was more open and accepting of what we taught than anyone I've seen in a long time. She gladly took a Book of Mormon and said she would read it and pray about it. Its always great to see the rising generation come unto Christ.
Transfer calls will be this Sunday. As always, If I'm transferred I will know that it is the Lord's will...but man oh man It'll be hard! Eh, guess will see soon enough. Hope you all have a great week. Take care!

-Andy

March 15, 2010

2010-04-19T18:22:00.000-07:00

As always, the week had its ups and downs. We didn't have a lot of lessons, but success came in other forms.
We weren't able to really teach Herr Hardtbauer this week, but we were able to have some contact with him through the ward. We had a "Männerabend" (Man's Night) on wednesday evening. A bunch of the guys from the ward went out for all you can eat Ribs at this pizza place by our apartment. Bruder Dengg brought Herr Hardtbauer and he had a great time. Anyone who has served a mission will agree with me when I say that the key to success with investigators is through the members!
Even better news from Wednesday night...we finally found Tomas!! We went by his place twice during the day and decided to try one more time before we headed over to the Pizza Stube. He didn't answer before we left but was there and saw us out the window. A ran after us for a couple of blocks until he finally caught up to us and asked for a new appointment right away. We also just barely ran into him this morning and should be meeting with him tomorrow. Thank you for your prayers in his behalf! It was on his time, but the Lord has answered them. With in no time we'll be preparing him to enter the waters of baptism.
Also found two new investigators this week. One's name is Herr Reichl. He lives alone and has lots of health and depression problems. In short, he needs the gospel as much as just about anybody. I'm really grateful that the Lord has sent us to someone who really needs his help.
As the time on my mission is winding down (I still have a long way to go, but once you've been on the mission for over a year, ten months doesn't seem that long at all), and as it does I find myself puttering out and losing focus at times. But Its the fact that I'm in an area with so many prepared people, and the fear of reaching the end without doing enough, that keeps me going. I hope that over the next week I can once again whip myself back into shape and lose myself in the work. After all, I know from experience that that is when a missionary is the happiest and brings forth the most good works.

Take care all!

-Andy

March 8, 2010

2010-04-19T18:20:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, just as the weather was getting better, it froze over again. We're in Munich today for a district P-Day and it's freezing cold. I guess we'll just have to have a good time anyway.

The past week was a pretty successful one. We had some great appointments and helped some great people come closer to Christ. Had a great appointment with Monika this week. Pres. Auras came with us and did a great job at helping us explain the priesthood and....church auxiliaries (couldn't think of the word in English for a second there...that happens a lot the longer you are on your mission...I forget so many English words all the time. My grammar is all over the place as well. Guess that's a good sign). Anyway, afterwords we went by a less active member from Brazil who had been gone for about a month and a half. She's a great Lady and wants to come to church, but I think its hard for her to speak up because her husband is not a member. They're both great people though, and as we shared a spiritual thought with them about the restoration the spirit was very strong. I hope her husband took some time to think about what he felt when we were there, because I know he felt something.

Herr Hardtbauer is doing very well. When we met with him last he told us that he had gone a whole week without alcohol. Its been really great to see his progress. We emphasized to him last time that we want to keep better track of his progress so that he can see his own progress more and motivate himself better to keep going. I'm really excited for Herr Hardtbauer's near future and can't wait to see him baptized.

Still not been able to reach Tomas. Its insane how once you set a baptismal date with someone, everything just goes crazy. Just a testimony builder to me that baptism in the restored church of Christ is the first step to eternal life. Satan knows that and does everything he can to stop these wonderful people from entering the waters of baptism. But no matter. The only thing we can do now is keep doing our best to find him, and then wait for the Lord to take care of the rest.

Hope Spring comes to you all ASAP. I know I'M sure getting sick of the cold. Take care and enjoy life!

-Andy

We are ALL Children of God

2010-03-04T05:59:00.000-08:00

Can't believe its already the first of March! The time does not slow down! Back when I was with Elder Jensen, he told me that once you hit your year mark, the clock starts tickin' like a madman and the time just picks up more and more speed. He was right. I'm starting to realize what Elder Whitsitt said before he went home... "Two years is not enough."
But hey, I still got a while and a lot of work to do, so lets just stop daydreaming about the time that will be spent and start worrying about how we're going to spend it, shall we?
Herr Hardtbauer is making good progress. He read through the church's addiction recovery program that Brother Reisinger gave him and was really excited about it. He came to church on Sunday and Brother Reisinger talked about it a little more with him and offered to go through the program with him. Its always great to see members reaching out and helping investigators. We also had him over at the Zacherl's after church yesterday, where Brother Zacherl took the opportunity to do a lot of teaching during our spiritual thought.
Haven't been able to reach Tomas for a whole week. It seems that the adversary is fully aware of the great potential of this great young man and is still working hard on him. As worried as I am, i know that your prayers in his behalf are working. we'll be able to reach him and continue to lead him to baptism.
Monika is doing very well as always. Its always great to teach her and feel the great spirit that is in her home. Just by being around her one can feel that the atonement of Jesus Christ has changed her life.
This week we had zone conference, always one of my favorite parts of a transfer. Its always great to gather together as missionaries, enjoy each others company, catch up with old buddies, and strengthen each other for the days ahead. My ole comp and buddy Elder Erekson, now the new Assistant to the President, gave a great leadership training workshop on "potential." He reminded me of something that I think we all often forget, and that is the simple fact that we are children of God. He first talked about limitations that we impose upon ourselves, such as rationalization, self-condemnation, and of course, pride, and said that all of these things, these self-limitations, can disappear if we just remember our potential as children of God a little more. I know that I personally need to remember that a lot more. For the past few weeks I've felt that I've been plateauing a little in my personal and spiritual progression. Guess I just need to remember that I AM a son of God, with the potential, and the help of his son Jesus Christ, not only to become as he some day, but to bring souls unto him right now!
Thanks for your prayers, and your love. I feel it every day! Hope you all know that I love you and pray for you always. Take care and have a great week! Chao!

-Andy

We don't fear questions, WE invite them...

2010-02-22T06:01:00.000-08:00

Another week has gone by and all is well in Landshut. Elder Ray is excited to be back in his greeny area and we're already having a great time together. Because he's already been here, and seen the difference in the work now and what it was like his first time around, he's already caught the vision for the area. Lanshut has been on the up and up since I got here, and there's not a doubt in my mind that that's where it's still headed.
Landshut was extremely lucky to have Elder Hansen here for the past six months. His obedience and determination were a huge factor in bringing the work to where it is now, and the progression of these great people. We were able to meet with Tomas the day before transfers and Elder Hansen almost single-handedly set a baptismal date with him! Tomas is so prepared! It's just a matter of meeting with him regularly enough to make progress. The adversary is still working real hard to make sure we can't get a hold of him, so as always your prayers in his behalf will be a big help :)
Monika is doing very well. It looks like she and Mario will be getting married within the next month, and she is still strong in her commitment to be baptized two weeks later.
Herr Hardtbauer is still making progress. We talked a lot about his biggest problem this week-- The Word of Wisdom. We committed him to stop drinking beer this week and, despite his doubts in himself, he gladly accepted. Brother Reisinger was there and was a great help in giving Herr Hardtbauer the support he needed.
This Saturday and Sunday we had the special opportunity of attending the satelite broadcast of the stake conference in Berlin where President Uchtdorf came and spoke to the members of all the German speaking nations. It was a great blessing, not only to hear President Uchtdorf speak German, but to hear the council and blessings of the Lord to the saints of this land through a modern-day prophet. Of the many words of wisdom and council he gave, there is something he said that helped me in my personal development as a missionary. He said that "We are a church that not only allows, but INVITES questions. It was because of the thoughtful and honest questions of a Young Joseph Smith that the church was restored." I think that's something that separates us from other churches. We don't fear questions. We INVITE them. That is something that I will try to more consciously remember in my teaching.. to not only allow questions but to invite them, for it is through questions that our investigators most effectively learn what will ultimately help them to accept our message.
Another thing that President Uchtdorf said that seemed to really strike a chord was the fact that as a church, WE ARE DIFFERENT from other christian churches. He counselled us to stop saying that we are really similar to the Catholic Church, or the Evangelical Church, but with a few differences, but to proudly say that we are different. We are the only church that has the fullness of the gospel, and the authority to act in God's name. Speaking further on this subject, President Uchtdorf urged us to let the world know who the real Christians in this world are through are charity and love for others.
This stake conference reminded me how wonderful it is that we have modern day revelation, that we have prophets on the earth today. I know that this weekend we heard from one of them and that Jesus Christ truly leads this church and this missionary work here in Germany.
Take care all!

-Andy

He is the Way

2010-02-10T06:54:00.001-08:00

Sounds like things are chuggin' along as usual back home. It's been a tough week but I've learned quite a bit and grown quite a bit more.
It was another week of health problems for both Elder Hansen and me. Elder Hansen's headaches from his post-concussion syndrome have returned and my back was not getting better as quickly as I would have liked. Together we successfully shut down our finding time. Despite our limitations, however, our work did not slow down and our health is improving. Yesterday after church, President Auras gave me a wonderful blessing and my back feels unbelievably better today. Elder Hansen's headaches have also gotten better. We're still gonna have to be patient, take it easy, and remember what Joseph Smith said to the brethren in Liberty Jail (paraphrasing), "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us do everything that lies in our power, and then may we stand still, and wait for the Lord's hand to be revealed."
This week we had an amazing appointment with Monika Hein. She and Mario are almost ready to set a marriage date and we committed her to be baptized two weeks later. She gladly accepted and was overwhelmed by the spirit. We all received a witness together that it was the right choice. She also was able to come to the baptism of a little girl in our ward yesterday evening and thought it was wonderful. She and Mario are great at sharing the gospel with others and will be important tools in the lord's hands in building the church here in Germany very soon.
Herr Hardtbauer continues to make progress, slowly but surely. We had a Family Home Evening with him at Schwester Fritz's house, and he played guitar and banjo for us. Olin you would have loved it. He first busted out some classic Johnny Cash songs and then played some great old southern tunes on the banjo. I could shoot myself for not having brought my camera at the time.
We were finally able to meet with Tomas again. Apparently he had injured his leg pretty bad playing American Football (I guess I don't have to call it "American Football" when I write home, do I) and couldn't walk for about two weeks. He had been reading in the Book of Mormon the whole time, however, and told us that he loves it. We asked him again about baptism and he said he would think and pray about it over the next two weeks and then would give us an answer. We'll be meeting with him again tomorrow at Julian Klemm's. He's so ready, and I know that over the next two weeks the adversary will be working on hard on him. Your prayers in his behalf will help him immensely in that regard.
Amidst my trials this week, I've felt the strengthening power of my Saviors atonement and the love of my Heavenly Father more than ever. Just want to bear you all my testimony once again that Jesus lives. He IS the way, and is ALWAYS ready to help us. Remember that amidst the hustle and bustle of living in the modern world. Its the most important peace of knowledge there is in this world. Love you all!

Alles Gute,

-Andy

Life is good, and that the gospel will never fail us

2010-01-20T20:01:00.000-08:00

January 18, 2010

Man, the time continues to hurry on. I've officially been on my mission a whole year! What an awakening! I'm starting to realize that my mission isn't going to last forever...that this precious time is unbelievably short...that I have a lot of work to do before its up. For the past couple of days I've been thinking a lot about what Elder Holland said in his talk last general conference, which was something along the lines of, "Before I leave this world I wanted it perfectly clear that I testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon." As the time winds down, I've been realizing that at the end of my mission I want to know that I testified to these people as much as possible that the Book of Mormon is true. Guess I just gotta keep on doing what the good Dr. Thompson prescribed..."Buy the ticket, take the ride!"
Pleased to report that the work here in Landshut is still on the up and up. We are busier than ever (that's a good thing, however tiring it may be) and if everything goes through this week we'll have so many appointments that we won't know what to do with ourselves!
Last week we were able to set a baptismal date with an old investigator! His name is Eckhart Hardtbauer. He's been an investigator for quite awhile but was never able to make consistent progress because he wouldn't give up drinking. Elder Hansen and Elder Hintz had dropped him not too long before I got here. A couple weeks ago, however, Herr Hardtbauer called up Bruder Reisinger and told him that he felt bad that we weren't coming to see him anymore and that he was too ashamed to come to church. Elder Hansen had actually been thinking about Herr Hardtbauer for the past week, and after the news of his cry for help from Bruder Reisinger, we both felt that it was time to give him another chance. We committed him to a baptismal date for the 4th of April, and to meet with us three times a week 'till then so we could help him resolve all of his problems in time, and he accepted. Its going to be a long and winding road to get Herr Hardtbauer to baptism, but if the Lord thinks he can do it (which he does) then I'm definitely on board.
Had a really great experience Monday evening. We had decided to do what we call a "Power Besuch" ("Power Visit"). What we do is choose an area to work in where a member family lives, stop by the family and pray with them, and return after we have worked in the area to report the success. Naturally, the success part depends on the faith of the members and our willingness to give our best. We decided to go by the Klemm family (they're always willing to help us out) and made an appointment out with a neighbor of theirs within ten minutes of working in the area. It was great to return and report to them that someone willing had been found because they had a faith and excitement for the missionary work. We also got a referral from them and were able to contact her and make out an appointment with her for this week. Through experiences like these, I've gained a huge testimony of the member missionary work on my mission. President Hinkley was definitely inspired when he said that the best way of doing missionary work is through the members. The excitement for the missionary work continues to slowly but surely grow in our ward in general, which is a huge weight off my shoulders and a wonderful thing to witness.
Our other investigators are doing pretty well. Monika doesn't have a baptismal date yet but we're getting there. We'll be meeting with Tomas tonight and have high hopes for him as well. Once again, your prayers in behalf of these people will be a big help, and thank you for all the prayers that you have already blessed them with.
I hope you all are happy and healthy. I hope that you all try to remember every day what I forgot sometimes before my mission...that life is good, and that the gospel will never fail us.

Love you all! Take care!

-Andy

"The Book of Mormon gives me this power"

2010-01-11T18:58:00.000-08:00

After a rough first transfer here in Landshut, the blessings are finally coming. It’s been a great week of improvement, in many areas.
We're actually having lessons again, which is a really nice change, and some of our investigators are making great progress. Tomas, our investigator form Africa, met with us twice this week. To our surprise he had been reading regularly in the Book of Mormon. "It's great," he said. "It’s like the Bible, but it...it...it gives me this strength, ya know...this power." We told him we knew exactly what he was talking about. He had even on his own tried to get his girlfriend to read it. Unfortunately she wasn't too interested, but we'll worry more about that once we've got Tomas taken care of. Thursday night we had a great appointment with him at the Klemm's, an awesome young couple in our ward. He doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, but of all things seems to have a problem with prayer. We'll be working on that with him this week so he can recieve his own strong testimony of the restored gospel. Our goal is to set a baptismal date with him as soon as possible, so your prayers in his behalf would be much appreciated.
We'll also be trying to set a baptismal date with Monika Hein. Monika is an investigator who moved into our area from Passau. She lives with a less active member, Mario Friedrich. She had had a baptismal date beforehand but had to cancel it because she was living with Mario and was at the time unable to divorce her first husband. Last time we met with them she informed us that she is now legally divorced and that she and Mario are ready to marry. We committed them to set a date by our next appointment and will set a baptismal date with her once they have done that. I feel very blessed to have such an investigator fall into our hands and I look forward to the great progress we will make with Monika and Mario in the coming weeks.
Elder Hansen and I are working more in unity than ever before. We've come to understand each other through a few pretty big talks and have really made it over the hump as far as our companionship goes. I have tried to improve myself a little more to show him that he can trust me, and I think it's really paid off. The Lord is blessing us quite a bit for our efforts and will continue to do so if we keep doing our part.
Lastly I just want to thank you all for your prayers. They've been working and have been blessing the lives of the people of Landshut. I'll keep praying for you all here and am glad to hear that the Lord is answering my prayers in your behalf as well.

Alles Gute!

-Andy

Surprised to feel Nothing but Peace

2009-12-21T21:06:00.000-08:00

We're in Munich for district p-day and I only have about fifteen minutes before I gotta skidaddle.
Was a slightly disappointing week for us in Landshut. The Christmas season is a wonderful time of reflection and spiritual growth on the mission, but it really slows down the work here in Germany. Unfortunately, as it usually is once a baptismal date is set with someone, the adversary has been working really hard on Surin and David. All of our appointments with them fell out this week and Surin is losing interest. This coming week we'll still be doing our best to bring them the gospel. We'll especially be working really hard with David because we know that HE has really felt the spirit testify that what we say is true. He even told us so.
There was one big glorious highlight of the week however. We had an amazing appointment with Tomas at the Klemm's home. They're a great young couple in our ward, and Br. Klemm really befriended Tomas and gave powerful testimony of the gospel. His cousin, a fresh R.M., was also there and really helped us out with his special R.M. spirit. I think it was really great for Tomas to see normal, for lack of a better term "chill" people who live and love the gospel. We watched the "joy to the world" DVD with him and he got teared up a couple times as the Tabernacle Choir sang those beautiful Christmas hymns. Br. Kelmm invited him to church and was ready to pick him up on Sunday, but unfortunately we couldn't get a hold of him. Was a little disappointing after such a great appointment, but I'm still full of hope and excitement for the guy. In the midst of our disappointments we must never forget our successes, because they are what makes it all so great.
Last night as I tallied up our low numbers, I was surprised to feel nothing but peace. I knew that I had given my best and the Lord was pleased with my work. As Elder Texiera of the seventy told us in Mission Tour, its a matter of faith! All I can do is continue doing my best and turn the rest over to the Lord.

Hope this Christmas is a great one for you all. I'm excited to spend some quality time with the members, enjoy the great cultural experience of Christmas in Germany, and even more excited to use this time to find people.

Merry Christmas every one!

-Andy

Christmas..A celebration of HIS life and HIS atonement

2009-12-14T21:28:00.000-08:00

Hope the holiday season has been treatin' ya well. Christmas is really a beautiful time in Germany. We had a ward Christmas party last night at the church and watched the first presidencies Christmas Devotional at the end. When the tabernacle choir sang "For Unto Us a Child is Born" I was brought to tears. The spirit always seems to speak to me very strongly through that song. And as I listened to it sung beautifully by the tabernacle choir last night it reminded me again of what the Christmas season really is about. "For unto us a son is born, unto us a son is given." What a wonderful thing it is to have this time to celebrate the birth of our savior, to celebrate and give thanks that our heavenly father sent his son to this earth to redeem all of us. "...and his name shall be called, Wonderful Councilor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Christmas is after all, more than just a celebration of Christ's birth. It is a celebration of his life and his atonement. It’s no coincidence that we all associate Christmas so closely with the family when the family is the center of God's plan, which is made possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I feel very close to my savior this Christmas season, and, even though I'm here and you're there, closer than ever to my family.
As far as the past week goes, I guess I can put it simply by saying it's been a great one! We've set a baptismal date with Surin's son, David, whose testimony is blossoming before our eyes, and will hopefully set one with Surin this week. We have a great new investigator who we found because Elder Hansen is so good at talking to everyone. His name is Tomas and he's from Africa ( I think). We had an appointment with another investigator on Tuesday night that fell out and while we were waiting outside Elder Hansen started talking to this guy walking passed us. Tomas was instantly very open and made an appointment out with us for the next day. Within the next two days we met with him twice and were able to set up a two times a week appointment schedule with him. We've been taught by our leaders to be very upfront with our investigators, to let them know that our end goal is to baptize them. This is what we did with Tomas and it was great to see him accept it so well. Its great to see that when we have faith in the authority that God has given us as missionaries, and let the people know who we are and what our goal really is, they recognize the truth and accept it far better than when we beat around the bush.
We've got another busy week ahead of us, but I'm grateful that the Lord has blessed us with so many prepared people that we don't even know what to do with ourselves. I must admit, I've been a little down this week because, maybe due to the Christmas season, I've been missing my family quite severely, but I've pressed on and tried my best to lose myself in the work, and have seen the fruits of that. It gives me a great feeling of comfort to hear from you every week and to know that you're all doing well. You mean everything to me and I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas! Have a great week and enjoy the holiday season!

Alles Gute!

-Andy

Lord is with Us, when we turn to him things will work out

2009-12-07T05:34:00.000-08:00

Dear Fam,

The holiday season is finally here in full force. Must admit, my first Christmas season away from home and all of you is making me a little homesick, but I'm more than glad to be here, and very grateful that I get to serve in Germany where Christmas is such a big deal. The town is lit up with Christmas lights and the Christmas markets are out in full force. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good pictures today and also get a few little Christmas presents for the fam ;)
I must admit, being transferred to Landshut has definitely been the toughest transition of my mission. Being a senior companion has definitely been a little more stressful than I imagined. When I first got word that I would be senior companion in a new area, I thought I was totally ready. I was right in the fact that my time in Erlangen had prepared me for it, but the past two weeks have definitely been humbling. I feel a whole new wait of responsibility and accountability on my shoulders, which is causing me to have half the energy I used to. I can honestly say I've never been so tired on my mission, or in my whole life for that matter.
Yesterday proved to be the catalyst, or realization that I "wasn't in Kansas anymore." As Elder Hansen and I added our numbers up for the week, we realized that we hadn't even come close to achieving what we had wanted to. It was the first time in my mission that I had been so hard on myself, blaming myself for our lack of success, and it didn't feel good. I felt like I had failed this area, and failed as a senior companion. After about a half hour of talking about what went wrong, I made the decision to stop feeling sorry for myself and just get on with it. Elder Hansen and I made some goals as to what we can do better and I feel pretty confident that this week will be much more successful. I guess in the end all I need to do is be patient with myself and remember that I need to do is my best and turn the rest over to the Lord. My only problem is that the spirit is willing but the flesh is week. I could get a lot more done if I wasn't so dang tired all the time. Just gotta have more faith and keep on goin' I guess. Thank you for your prayers family. I feel them strengthening me every day.
Despite the tough times, the week definitely wasn't a complete loss. We had an amazing appointment the other night with Surin, an investigator from Romania. As soon as we went into his home Saturday night, I felt the spirit of a good, faithful family living in that house. I knew that we were meeting with someone special. President Auras was with us and really caught the vision for this family, which will be a huge help for the future. We taught them the plan of salvation, and it was great to see how well they accepted it. The real miracle was when Surin explained to US the three kingdoms of glory before we could explain it to him. President Auras really got a kick out of that and shared the experience in fast and testimony meeting yesterday. Elder Hansen extended Surin and his son the commitment to baptism at the end of the appointment. They didn't quite say yes, but they were very positive about the idea. If it weren't for the language barrier, this family's understanding would have lead them to baptism already, so we just need to adapt to their needs by being patient and teaching with a little more simplicity. It is our goal to have a baptism this transfer, and I feel pretty strongly that Surin will be that baptism. Hopefully we'll be meeting with him tomorrow and bring Bruder Reisinger, also a stud of a member in our ward. The whole family will also be coming to our Ward Christmas party next Sunday evening, which will be a huge help in integrating the family into the ward.
Kind of having an interesting epiphany right now. As I wrote that last paragraph, I found that I was focusing on the highlights of this past week and once again feeling good about myself and the work. Just another sign that the Lord is with me and when we turn to him, things will work out.
Enjoy the holiday season and know that I am with you always. Take care!

-Andy

A day without laughter is a day wasted

2009-11-30T20:43:00.000-08:00

November 30, 2009

Dear Fam,
As always, I'm sure glad transfer week is over. Its always really disorienting and uncomfortable when you get transferred. But eventually you settle in and just get on with the work. I'd be lying if I said I still didn't miss Erlangen like crazy, but I'm glad to be here and excited for the work ahead of me.
This is my first time as senior companion. A little nerve-wracking but I do feel that my time in Erlangen prepared me for it. My new companion, Elder Hansen, is now in his third transfer. He's already a great missionary with wisdom and work ethic that I definitely didn't have when I was at the beginning of my third transfer. He has some depression problems but handles them really well and tries his best to forget about himself. I've been trying to compensate by making sure that we have a lot of laughs together. After all, a day without laughter is a day wasted, and a day without a lot of laughter is a day not very well spent.
The branch seems really great. Considerably smaller than Erlangen, but it seems that the ward really likes the missionaries and is ready to help us in the work. We just got a new Ward Mission Leader who seems pretty enthusiastic so that should be a big help. What thrills me the most is that our branch president is the brother of Daniel and David Auras, my good friends in Erlangen, and he's a stud just like his brothers!
In any case, its great to be back in Bavaria. Landshut is a beautiful city and I look forward to exploring it. Our apartment is right in the middle of the city and also right next to a catholic church to give us a little extra motivation ;)
Glad to hear your thanksgiving was great! Tell Grandma and Grandpa I miss 'em a ton! I'll be thinking of you all a lot this holiday season I'm sure. After all, it is the first Christmas I'll be spending away from home. Strange thought. Anyway, Love you all and hope the week is great!

Love,-Andy

November 23, 2009

Dear Fam,
Hope its been a great week for ya! Received your package the other day! Thanks a million for the book Mom! I've read a little and have loved it. Reading the words of C.S. Lewis always strengthens my testimony! And the pictures of Olin and Karl tripped me out man! You guys have really grown up over the past year. Especially you Karl!
As you already heard from Br. Meissner (I'm gonna miss that guy, he's hilarious! Hope you enjoyed my message, wanted to say something that you knew would be from me), I'll be leaving Erlangen this Wednesday for Landshut (pronounced Londsoot, not Land shut). Elder Anderson is also leaving Erlangen for Kaufbeuren, my first area. What a way to start the mission! First the guy gets sent here with Me, Jensen, and Achtmann, three of the craziest Elders in the mission, then he goes to Kaufbeuren ! I'm excited for him. There are a lot of interesting people in Kaufbeuren, if ya know what I mean.
Its hard to describe the contradiction of feelings that I've been having since I got the transfer call yesterday morning. I think you all already know, or at least can imagine how much I love Erlangen, and how tough it is for me to leave an area that I worked so hard in for 4 months only to see the very beginning of its turnaround, to leave a ward that I love with people who I now consider my family. But unlike my transfer from Schweinfurt, I've been able to accept what the Lord has in store for me with a great feeling of peace and excitement for the future. I always used to be the type of person who didn't embrace change well, but my mission has taught me that change is life, to put it as simply as possible, and as bitter as it may sometimes be in the moment, its return is always sweet when you realize that change is what allows us to progress and makes us who we are. I will always be grateful for my time here in Erlangen, for the relationships that I've made and for the work that I've done, and I look forward to the rest of my mission and the opportunity and privilege that I have to build more relationships and help more people come unto Christ.
Andy

The Book of Mormon is the Word of God

2009-11-22T14:38:00.000-08:00

November 9, 2009

Its been another tough week here in Erlangen. Our golden investigators fell off the face of the earth, and despite our increase in active finding, we can't seem to get as many new investigators as we'd like. There were some great miracles this week, however, and last night Elder Jensen and I both talked about how, in weeks like this, its a peaceful feeling to know that we did our best and are square with the Lord.
For the last two weeks we haven't been able to get a hold of Walter. The last time we talked to him he had the Swine flu and since then we've gone by and called him to no avail. After asking his neighbor if she had seen him yesterday, we came to the conclusion that he's gotta be in the hospital. Tomorrow we'll be searching for him, calling the local hospitals to find out if he's there. It seems that the adversary is very aware of Walter's preparedness, and is working really hard to keep him from this message. Just means we have to up the anty and do everything we possibly can to get Walter baptized. As Elder Texiera said at mission tour, "It's a matter of faith," and we'll be mustering up all the faith we possibly can this week to find Walter and set a baptism date with him.
On Saturday we were able to do something that opened the doors for miracles for a very special family in the near future. We had gone by Frau Lechner earlier in the week to see how her move was going and offered our services. Thankfully she accepted and invited us to help with the move that Saturday. It was a great opportunity to touch this family's heart with our willingness to serve and also to get to know her awesome husband. Because of this act of service we were able to begin building a great relationship with a very special family who Elder Jensen and I both feel very strongly has been prepared by the Lord to accept the Gospel. At the end of the days work they said that they would definitely call us and invited for dinner to thank us. We accepted, of course, and look forward to teaching this family in the near future.
Luckily, we were finally able to get a hold of Andreas Jud yesterday. Found out that his new job has been taking up all his time, so much so that he barely has time to spend with his family. Despite that he told us that he has been reading in the Book of Mormon and made an appointment out for next Monday. Its frustrating when you can't meet with someone as often as you'd like, but its also a miracle when someone, despite the state of chaos that their life is in, has felt the spirit strongly enough to keep trying our message out. And after the way the past few weeks have been, we'll take what we can get.
Later in the evening while going by some potential investigators in the city, we received an unexpected call from Walter Hoffmann. He's a potential investigator that Elder Gneiting and I met at a street display, and taught, or at least tried to teach, once after that. He's extremely baptist, and was quite the tough customer- an investigator that really challenges everything we teach and believe. Normally I say "forget it" with people like Walter and move on to people who really want to hear our message instead of trying to convince us that the Book of Mormon isn't true, but for whatever reason, Walter stayed in the back of my mind until I couldn't ignore it anymore and decided to give him another chance. After not being able to reach him for quite awhile, he gave us a call back last night. To make a long story short, the fifty minute conversation that followed was pretty freakin' intense, just as I knew it would be. You really have to stay on your toes with a guy like Walter, and with the help of the spirit, I was able to bear what I felt to be very powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and the restored gospel. After the conversation I was really glad that I had made a goal to spend a little time in the Book of Mormon every single day in my personal study so I could bare that strong witness that it is true to a man who is so convinced that it isn't. Which brings me to my point. Family and friends, for whatever reason I feel it is my responsibility today to bare you my testimony that the Book of Mormon IS the word of god, and that Joseph Smith was and IS his prophet, that through him the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth so that we can receive eternal life. Most of you already know that, so don't forget it, and do everything you can to always be striving to strengthen your testimony. For any of you who don't know that, or find your testimony shaking, read in the Book of Mormon, go to your Heavenly Father in prayer and ask him if it is true, and act on that answer. Our testimonies must always be reinvigorated and re-strengthened, and from last night I learned that that is only possible through our actions.
I guess I've been learning a lot of really important personal lessons over the past couple weeks that I think have ultimately changed the course of my mission. I've just shared one. The other I've learned through some hard times in our district. I've been watching a dear friend of mine entering freak-out mode because he's nearing the end of his mission. He's forgetting what he told me a few transfers ago, and that is, that the Lord sends us where he sends us because of who we are. Right now, he thinks he has to not be himself in order to end his mission diligently and on a good note, and its caused me to do some real soul searching over the past few days. The conclusion I came to is that I should always be striving to improve as a missionary, but I would rather do that by being who I am, than ignoring who I am in fear of my weaknesses. I may be a little to jovial and laid back about things at times, but the Lord has sent me here to work with these people because of who I am, and if I forget that than I lose my individuality. If I lose my individuality, than I lose the best part of myself. If I lose the best part of myself, I will never be able to connect with others, and that is the worst fate I can think of, not only as a missionary, but as a fellow human being and friend of the people I meet every day.
But enough about me. hope all is well for all of you back home. I love you all and pray for you every day. Keep on truckin'!
Alles Gute!
-Andy

November 16, 2009

Hopefully you've been updated on how tough things have been for us here in Erlangen the past few weeks. And as the days have gone by things have only become tougher. We've pretty much hit the bottom of our slump in this past week, working harder than ever and getting little to no satisfying results from our labors. We can't get a hold of our golden investigators, and as hard as we try we can't seem to find new ones. To put it simply, the adversary has pounded us.

Last night, as Elder Jensen and I pondered on the week, we both remembered an awesome quote from the Dark Knight: "The Night is darkest just before the dawn." In my time in Erlangen I have seen the improvement, and the many prepared people coming forth to accept the Gospel. Right now this is the moment of truth, the trial of our faith, and Elder Jensen and I are ready to pass this test with flying colors. We have the vision, and we definitely see that bright, beautiful dawn on the horizon. More importantly, we know that the Lord will bless us and the people of Erlangen for our hard work. The other night as Elder Jensen and I were walking home, my severe discouragement was replaced by a great feeling of comfort from the spirit, letting me know that, whatever happens, I am well on my way to becoming the missionary that the Lord has called me here to become, that he is with me, and has consecrated my work this transfer.

Thank you for your prayers fam, and keep 'em coming! This Sunday is transfer calls so next week I'll be letting you know next Monday whether I'm staying or going! Have a great week and take care!

Alles Gute!

-Andy

It's a Matter of Faith

2009-11-02T17:40:00.000-08:00

November is in full force here in Erlangen. All the leaves are brown and right now its a cloudy day with a little rain. Makes me miss home a little. I've always loved Utah Valley in the fall.

It seems that Satan is really working hard on the people here in Erlangen. unfortunately, due to sicknesses and other weird reasons, we haven't had much luck meeting with our investigators. Walter got the flu, Andreas has disappeared off the face of the earth, and Frau Lechner is still busy moving. Elder Jensen and I were talking about our struggles last night, however, and we both feel reinvigorated and very good about this upcoming week. Our faith is strong and our will to keep on truckin' is even stronger.
This week we had the great privilege of having a mission tour. We had the opportunity of hearing from two general authorities: Elder Camargo of the third quorum of the seventy, and Elder Texiera of the presidency of the Europe area. It was a great spiritual energy boost to hear from these two servants of the Lord. Elder Texiera talked a lot about how the Lord expects a difference here in Germany, and that, in his own words, "Its a matter of faith." I received a lot of personal revelation about what I can do better, but the basic message that I got from the mission tour was that all I really need to do Is push myself just a little more and do things, in Elder Tiexeira's words, "fundamentally different" in order to see more success here in Erlangen, and for the rest of my mission.
Luckily the end of the week showed us a little promise. Yesterday we went by Frau Lechner and offered our services to help with the move. She accepted and we will be helping her and her family move this Saturday. This gives us a great opportunity to start building a relationship with her husband and children and make the steps toward eventually teaching them as a family. I've caught the vision for this family and can't wait to see what happens with them in the near future.
Glad to hear that things are well back home, and glad to hear that Young Frankenstein is still being watched at the Andersen home on Halloween that's super important. Elder Jensen knows Young Frankenstein and we've been quoting it all the time for the past four weeks "There Wolf...There Castle."
Know that I love you all, and pray for you every day. The Lord will continue to bless you. I know because he has promised to bless my family while I'm away.

Alles Gute!

-Andy

All the Leaves are Brown and the Sky is Gray

2009-10-26T06:27:00.000-07:00

Fall is has arrived in full force here in Erlangen. All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray (Mamas and the Papas reference), but today its a little warmer ad we get a break from the dreariness and enjoy some sun. Its been somewhat of a disappointing week but in the end it ended up being more successful than we thought it would be.
Unfortunately, our appointments with Walter and Andreas, our two golden investigators, fell out, leaving me and Elder Jensen in stitches. Luckily, we were able to get hold of Walter last night and he sounded like he was doing well. We were able to make out two appointments for this week and will be prayin' like crazy for the next couple of days that they go through.
Elder Achtmann was sick this week so we had the opportunity to do some mini companion exchanges so they could still get to some important appointments. Elder Anderson and I went to Frau Maisel, their golden investigator, and we were able to set a baptismal date with her! Super exciting because it'll be the first baptism in Erlangen in years. Hopefully we'll be able to set a baptism with Walter as well in the next week. I would love to see him baptized before I get transferred. We were also able to get a couple new investigators that the other Elders had found in our part of the city, so things are really shaping up for us.
Had a pretty hilarious experience at Zone Conference on Friday. I guess I'll start out with the background information: Elder Achtmann loves spicy food and had bought some ridiculously hot hot sauce called "Beyond Death" at this American food store that we went to with the Bishop a couple of weeks ago. Now he brings it with him everywhere so he can put it on his food when we eat out. Anyway, It came time for lunch at Zone Conference and sure enough, Elder Achtmann busts out the "Beyond Death." Before long, President Condie happens to notice that we're putting a small drop of this stuff on our food, treating it like its radioactive, and saunters over in his President Condie way to check out the situation. He looks at the stuff, takes the bottle and says to Elder Achtmann, "I'm gonna try this, and if there are any problems, that means that you can't have it anymore." As he puts a drop on his plate we're all on pins in needles, telling him to be careful not to put too much.
After President Condie quietly saunters back to his table, Elder Lindgren, our awesome Finnish Zone Leader, comes over to our table to try this stuff out. Well he tries some, and he puts way to much on his food so now tears are streaming down his cheeks. He then proceeds to wipe his eyes, not realizing he has a big blotch of hot sauce still on his hand, and before he knows it he's in real trouble because he just put this ridiculous hot sauce directly on his eye. The hilarious thing was that as all this was happening, our table was just watching the whole thing laughing as Elder Achtmann got more and more nervous. After a couple more minutes Elder Lindgren frantically runs to the bathroom to wash his eyes out and President Condie soon follows to check up on him. Now Elder Achtmann is really freaking out. In a few more minutes, President Condie comes back into the room and walks straight over to our table. As we're all thinking that Elder Achtmann is in big trouble, President Condie just gives him a thumbs up and says, "That Hot Sauce tastes pretty good." and quietly walks back to his table. Hahaha President Condie is so legit.
Well, I hope that story was entertaining. Kind of a "had to be there" situation but since it was one of the highlights of my week, I thought it was worth sharing.
And yes, for whatever reason, I didn't get your email last week. Don't worry Mom, I know that you would never forget me, and I learned a valuable lesson from the experience. Its a strange thing to be away from your family for two years, only having contact with them once a week through emails, and I will admit, it was a little nerve racking not to know what was going on with my family for a whole week. Last Monday evening I found myself almost getting paranoid, thinking, "What if something's wrong and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it because I'm on the other side of the world?!" My nervousness and paranoia gave way to peace, however, as I prayed and asked Heavenly Father if everything was OK with my family. I was able to focus on the work for the rest of the week and not worry because I knew that my family was in my Heavenly Fathers hands, and always will be, even after I return home.
Thank you for your prayers and love! Hope you all know how much I love you and pray for you and your needs whenever I can! You are my family and are more important to me than anything! Take care and have a great week!

Alles Gute!
Andy

Simultaneously Successful and Disappointing

2009-10-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Fam,

Here in Erlangen, the week has been simultaneously successful and disappointing. It seems that these days there are absolutely no fence sitters in our pool of investigators. Everyone is either making progress or bowing out.
Our last appointment with Walter was the best we've had yet. We had planned it to be an intense scripture study and were pretty nervous about it because we'd be going head to head with some heinous J-dub doctrine. But, as it often does, the spirit directed us to take a different approach. We went through the plan of salvation pamphlet and read it together, using scriptures to back up the doctrine. With a calm spirit in the room, Walter accepted everything just fine and was, as always, really excited about what we were teaching him. At the end of the appointment we asked him if he had prayed about what we were teaching him and he said that he had, and that he really felt that this was the right way for him. He is loving the book of Mormon and says that he understands the gospel clearer than he ever has before (well, naturally, we're preaching the truth here). He still wants to study and pray a little more before he sets a baptismal date, but he's consciously thinking about it and is well on his way. Thanks for your prayers in Walters behalf everyone! They're working!
Our new investigator Andreas Jud is swiftly making progress. Every time we meet with him we can tell that his cynical side is really fading and becoming more and more superficial, giving way to his open heart that is ready to believe in God again. We meet with him tonight and have high hopes for his future.
Unfortunately, we had to drop Ingrid Strixner this week. To make a long story short, we had a great appointment with an extremely strong spirit. When there was nothing more we could say I asked Ingrid "Do you want to find out if our message is true?" she thought for a while, and finally came to her conclusion. "No" she said. It was, as it always is, unbelievably frustrating to build a relationship with someone, know that their heavenly father has led them to us, only to see them reject the truth. Just gotta keep on truckin though. There's plenty of prepared people out there and we've now got a little more time to find 'em.
Thanks you for your prayers. I feel them strengthening me and helping my investigators every day. Hope all is well. Love you all and take care!

-Andy

Right State of Mind

2009-10-12T05:33:00.001-07:00

Dear Fam,

First I'll relay the great news of the week. Yesterday was transfer calls and none of us got any. That means all four of us in the Erlangen district will be staying here for another transfer! We're all pretty stoked about that. Its very rare that you have a district where everyone gets along with one another so well. Man this transfer is gonna be epic!
Unfortunately, for the first time on my mission, I was sick this past week and had to stay in the apartment for almost three days. Despite this obnoxious hindrance, however, The week turned out to be pretty successful. We were finally able to meet with Andreas Jud, an young guy in our neighborhood who Elder Gneiting and I taught once. We watched the Restoration DVD with him and, although he said otherwise, I could tell it really touched him. He agreed to meeting with us twice a week, which is a hard thing to get the German's to agree to, and I'm absolutely positive that he'll quickly make progress. He's had some bad experiences with religion in the past, but says that it would be really great to find his faith again. I look forward to watching his progress over the next six weeks.
We had an appointment with Walter scheduled for this week, but unfortunately he canceled on us. We rescheduled for this Wednesday so if all goes to plan we'll be able to really resolve his concerns and once again invite him to really think about baptism. Thank you for your prayers on his behalf. Its been, and will continue to be, a tough road with him, but your prayers have worked and he continues to slowly but surely accept the restored gospel.
Last night we met with Herr Sahiti. He lives in our apartment building and we've built a really strong friendship with him. He's Muslim, but is really interested in all scripture, and really understands the concept that God's words never cease. We gave him a triple combination in Albanian with the hopes that we would be able to finally set up something in which we could regularly meet with him and finally make progress with him. Unfortunately, he declined our invitation, and we had to drop him as an official investigator, which normally is really disappointing, but with Herr Sahiti nothing has changed. We're still friends with him, and will still see him around the building and answer his questions whenever he has them. Its really frustrating as a Missionary to meet someone like Herr Sahiti, who is so close to the truths and already understands so clearly the most important principles of the gospel, but just isn't ready or willing to take the time to learn and accept the fullness of the gospel. But last night, as I thought about Herr Sahiti's situation and talked about it with Elder Jensen, I felt more and more at peace and had a very important principle of missionary work taught to me through the spirit. There are people in this world who, for whatever reason, will not be in the right state of mind to recognize the truth and accept it at the time its offered to them, or perhaps for their entire duration on this earth. I refuse to believe, however, that this is their only chance. Our Heavenly Father loves us too much to condemn us for initially rejecting something we don't understand. I am absolutely positive that there are so many great people in this world, who live great lives, who will have multiple chances in this life, and in the spirit world, to accept the Gospel at a time when they are in the right state of mind to recognized the truth, especially when the chance was given to them when they weren't. I guess my real point is, It's almost unfathomable just how much our Heavenly Father loves all of us, and, with his perfect understanding of the human condition, how merciful he is to his children.
Hope that all made sense. My writing skills are really struggling these days and it's really frustrating me. Oh well. guess I just have much more important things to worry about.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Your beloved son, brother, and friend,

-Andy

2009-10-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Fam,

Its been a full and wonderful week. It started with a hilarious p-day and ended with an unbelievable General Conference, with some great work in between.First things first, P-day. It was quite the hilarious adventure for us. First of all, its not as normal as you would think to walk around Nürnberg in Lederhosen. Had we been in Munich or somewhere in deep Bavaria, nobody would have looked twice at us, but to be in Nürnberg in Lederhosen, on a Monday, when almost nothing special is going on, is kinda wierd. But what do we care? We get more weird looks walking around in our shirts and ties than we do in Lederhosen. And more importantly, Lederhosen just makes everything better. When you're wearing Lederhosen, the sun shines brighter, food tastes better, funny things are funnier, and pretty things are prettier. They basically have the same effects as a natural drug, but they're not against the Word of Wisdom. Anyway, the day basically consisted of us seeing the sights in Nürnberg, the famous castle on top of a hill, looking over the whole city, this huge Gothic church, common in any big German city, and of course eating at a really touristy German restaurant. But the best part of the day was when we stopped at one of these street side accordion players and asked him to play a really fast polka song while Elder Jensen, Elder Achtmann and I did a Lederhosen, Bavarian knee slapping dance for everyone on the street. It was incredibly embarrassing but unbelievably hilarious as well. Elder Anderson took a video of it, which I'll try to send today if the internet isn't too slow.Things are going really well with Walter. We were able to meet with him twice this week. The first appointment was a little rough. We taught the second half of the plan of salvation, which is completely different from what the J-dub's teach, so it was a little hard for Walter to accept, but the spirit was there nonetheless. We plan on having a solid scripture study with him this week where we use the bible and the book of Mormon to clarify the doctrine. Hopefully this will increase his testimony of the doctrine, but more importantly that the fullness of the gospel, and the priesthood authority to baptize, was restored through Joseph Smith. He already believes this, but needs an unshakable testimony to be baptize and overcome what he's going up against, an entire J-dub congregation will do everything they can to keep him from getting baptized once he makes that decision. He came to the Saturday morning session of Conference and absolutely loved it, especially President Uchtdorfs talk (also my personal favorite from this conference), so I think he's really seeing and feeling the importance of the restoration. Keep him in your prayers fam, because over the next few weeks, he's definitely gonna need 'em.Had a great appointment with the Daniel and Andrea Auras, basically my favorite family in the Ward. Daniel's a freakin' stud. The only problem is whenever we go over there He and I spend like an hour talking about Movies (He's also a big film buff) to the annoyance of my companions (Well, I don't think Elder Jensen minds too much, but I'm sure it drove Elder Gneiting crazy haha).Speaking of Elder Jensen, things are going really well with us. I've been really lucky on my mission so far to be blessed with such great companions (even the tough ones). The guy is a spiritual giant, and, like me (or at least I'd like to think so), puts his focus on loving and helping the people, which is really the most important thing. I mean, its why we're here isn't it?After all, as President Uchtdorf told us on Saturday morning (or Saturday evening for me) thats whats most important for all of us as Latter Day Saints and Disciples of Christ. To love God, and to love our fellow man. As Latter-Day Saints, we should be known as people who love God and Others. Which brings me to my food for thought of the week...Elder Jensen told me something that has really changed my perspective on what it means to be a member of the Restored Church of Christ. A convert that he knew from back home had a friend say something to the effect of, "Well you should understand, you're a mormon." His reply was, "I'm not a Mormon. I'm a Saint." What a powerful and profound statement. The time has really come, as President Eyring said not long ago, for the perfecting of the Saints. We are not, and should not want to be, "Mormons." That often can be a term with a negative connotation created by man. We are disciples of Christ, literally Latter Day Saints. The time has come to stop Pharasitically going through the motions, as the "Mormons" can do, and truly become "Saints." For that is what The Lord has called us to be as members of his church in these days.As always, you're all in my prayers, and I wish you all the best in the coming week.Alles Gute!-Andy

I have received direct Witness

2009-09-21T17:02:00.000-07:00

Its almost 7:00 p.m. here in Erlangen. Had to have a bit of a different schedule this p-day due to an unexpected service project... and I am pretty exhausted. But what the heck, you're pretty much always tired on the mission anyway, so no biggie.
It was another slow week for us here in Erlangen, but we've made some serious progress and have a great week ahead of us.
As if by some divine miracle (actually it was by divine miracle), we were finally able to reach Walter Ganther after three weeks of no contact! To our surprise he was still open to our message. We were able to recommit him to reading in the book of Mormon and made out an appointment for this Wednesday. My certainty that Walter will be the next baptism in Erlangen remains, against all odds, and if all goes according to plan, and if he is ready, we will have set a baptism date with Walter by the end of the week. Its quite the nerve racking thing to try to baptize a newly converted Jehova's Witness, let alone teach him, because when you do that, you are up against an entire congregation who will do everything they can to stop you. Needless to say, we, and more importantly Walter, need your prayers now more than ever.
got some other emails to write this week, so to close this rather short and lame email this week I just want to share a pretty awesome spiritual experience we had today. For p-day today our district spent most of the day in Herzogen-Aurach, a dorf in our area, because they have epic Puma and Adidas outlet, and Elder Anderson wanted to go there and check it out for his birthday. We all pitched in 5 Euro and helped him buy some sweet shoes from the Puma outlet and ate at this sweet Mexican restaurant. Anyway, as we walked back to the middle of town where our Bus stop was, we started talking about Joseph Smith, and how there was absolutely no possible way that he couldn't be a prophet. The spirit kinda just hit us all at the same moment, then Elder Achtmann suddenly started faintly singing "Praise to the Man," almost as a joke, until we all joined him and walked down the street singing that amazing hymn like it was nothin'. And yes, I know that sounds totally doofus-missionary like, but it was a really powerful experience to walk down the street bearing our testimony of the Prophet Joseph in unison like that. Because of this silly but powerful experience, my testimony of what I'm doing here is reinvigorated ten-fold, and I can honestly say, once again, that I have received direct witness from God that Joseph Smith was his prophet, and that means that what I'm doing here is more important, and more incredible than anything else I could possibly be doing at this time. How lucky am I?!

Love you all! Bis nächste woche!

Alles Gute!

Ihr geliebter Sohn, Bruder, und Freund,

-Andy

Time Hurries on...September 14, 2009

2009-09-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

As of today I've officially been on my mission for 8 months. Unbelievable! Its just like Simon & Garfunkle said, "Time hurries on, and the leaves that are green turn to brown."
The work is going a little slow for Elder Jensen and I, but we're both doing our best to keep our spirits high and strengthen our faith. All we can do now is step up to the plate, organize ourselves, and keep on truckin'.
Despite the lack of luster in the work right now, I've really come to feel at home here in Erlangen over the past couple weeks and am very grateful to be working here. We have a wonderful ward whose enthusiasm for missionary work is definitely growing. Our district this transfer is also pretty legit. All four of us know how to work hard and play hard, and we've already had some pretty awesome times. Last week we went to Höchstadt, a Dorf in the Erlangen area, and picked up some awesome things at this Sozial Kaufhaus, which is basically a German version of D.I. Elder Achtmann found this amazing shirt (pic attached) and I was able to get me a Mr. Rogers sweater and a couple cool mugs. Our biggest adventure so far, however, was yesterday, when we had what Elder Achtmann and Elder Anderson called "Davy Jones Jambalaya" for Sunday dinner. It basically consisted of shrimp, clams, and...OCTOPUS that we found in the grocery store, (pics attached). It was actually pretty good (despite the fact that the octopus squirted sea water in my eye when I bit into the head) but my stomach was dyin' later that evening.
On a more spiritual note, Last Tuesday was Zone Conference, and probably the best and most spiritually uplifting Zone Conference I have been to so far. The theme this transfer was "becoming a better teacher" which I felt was exactly what I needed. There were two things in particular said by two different Elders that really spoke to me and helped me realize what I need to change. After giving us some tips fro street contacting, Elder Bond, our new zone leader, said that we don't do these things because they're gimmicks to trick people into listening to us. We do these things because we love the people, and we want to make sure that we give the German people a better chance to accept the gospel. As you all well know, I can have a little chip on my shoulder about somethings and always kind of tune out when Elders talk about what I usually refer to as "fancy contacting methods," but what Elder Bond said gave me the right motivation to be willing to try out new things and put forth an effort to become a more effective missionary.
Our new A.P., Elder Williams, talked about how we all reach a pint where we kinda slow down in our progression as missionaries and just float for awhile, and eventually either choose to rise up again or just kind of poop out (if you'll excuse the expression). I realized that I am in this state of floating right now, and must decide to rise to the occasion and work even harder to become the missionary that the lord as called me to be, because if there's one thing I don't want, its to just give up and coast for the rest of my mission.
Lastly I would especially like to thank you all for your prayers this week. In many instances they are what keep me going. I am still going and becoming a better missionary to bless the lives of the people here because your faithful prayers keep me going when things are at their toughest. I love you all and hope the coming week brings you health and happiness.

Alles Gute!

-Andy

Absolutely Wonderful Nonetheless

2009-09-09T21:49:00.000-07:00

Hope the past week has been a good one for you all. Once again the times are a changin' as they frequently do here on the mission. As I reflect on this past week, I realize how much my mission has helped me to accept change, something that was always hard for me to deal with in the past. Not even a month ago I would have cringed at the thought of having to take over an area, but over the past week I've been able to step it up and keep things going with very little trouble. Just goes to show you that the Lord will never give us something that we can't handle.

Elder Jensen and I are getting along just great. He's really easy going. I think the only challenge that we may have, if any, is getting the flow of teaching together well, which is something every companionship has to work on at the beginning. Elder Achtmann's greeny (That's what we call new missionaries), Elder Anderson, is a really cool guy. He's from the San Fransisco area, which of course is awesome, and seems to be adjusting to life in the field a lot better than I did. I think he's off to a good start because he's working with a great trainer and two other Elders who know how to work hard and play hard.

For the past transfer I've really tried to increase my love for the people, which I'd say I've done pretty successfully. Now it seems that the lord is testing my patience for the people. As of now I've reached probably the most frustrating situation of my mission. Our golden investigator, Walter Ganther, has been completely unreachable for the past two weeks. We've done everything we can to reach him, so now we just have to sit back and give him some time. The last time we met with him, we watched the Restoration DVD at a member's home, which he really enjoyed. He also said that he would read the entire Book of Mormon over the next week, and that he already believed it was true. Elder Gneiting and I were really excited about him and I was sure that he was going to be the next baptism in Erlangen. Its unbelievably frustrating to put all of your faith into a person only to have them all of a sudden fall out on you. This isn't the first time something like this has happened to me on my mission and It most likely won't be the last. The one thing I must remember now and for the rest of my mission is that in situations like this, all I can do is press forward, increase my faith and love for the people, and have the faith and works to see miracles happen for these people.

Yesterday at church, Bruder Daniel Auras, one of my fav members here in Erlangen, gave his new daughter her baby blessing. It was probably the most spiritually powerful Baby blessing I have ever witnessed, and I think its because the members here in Germany are so genuine in all that they do. Bruder Auras also bore his testimony and said how grateful he was to have the knowledge that he was sealed to his wife Andrea for eternity. These are things that I've witnessed many times growing up in the church, but because it came from such an amazing family that I've grown to respect and love during my time here, my heart was touched and made open to receive a strong and powerful witness form the Holy Ghost that through the restoration of the Priesthood, families can be sealed to be with each other in happiness for time and eternity, and that I will have the opportunity of being sealed to my future wife and raise a righteous family under the care and direction of my heavenly father.
If that all sounds cheesy, then so be it. Its true, and absolutely wonderful nonetheless.

I wish you all a wonderful week and send my tender lovin' vibes your way.

Alles Gute!

-Andy

Another Successful Week - Aug. 24th

2009-08-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

Dear Fam,

Pleased to report that its been another successful week here in Erlangen. We've been meeting with some truly prepared people who are strengthening my testimony as I try to help them develop theirs.

Our week started out on a really good note last Monday evening when we went back to work. We went by an old Contact in this apartment complex where mostly University students live. We weren't able to talk to her but another girl came walking up the steps just as we were about to leave and Elder Gneiting started talking to her (He's really good at trying to talk to everyone. I've definitely learned from his example in that regard). Surprisingly she let us right into her apartment and we were able to give her an entire first lesson. The spirit was very strong throughout our entire discussion with her and, although she didn't want a return visit from us at this point in time, we knew that she felt something and was prepared by the Lord to receive our message that day. It really has been a blessing for me to work here in Erlangen and be able to see so many faithful people my age.
We were finally able to meet with Walter Ganther, our newly converted Jehovah's Witness, again this week. He came with us to David and Marylin Auras', some awesome members in our ward, for dinner and we watched the Restoration DVD together. Walter really enjoyed it and has no problem believing that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He's really interested in the Book of Mormon, and will no doubt have read the whole thing by the end of this week. He's a man who is seeking after the truth, which is why he became a Jehovah's Witness, and will recognize it with no problem once he reads it and prays about it. We'll be shooting for a baptism date with him within the coming week or so, so keep your fingers crossed (or praying would probably be better)....I think I made this same joke in another email. Man I really need to get some new material.

...Uh, anyway, We had a great second appointment with Ingrid and Ludwig Strixner on Friday. Ludwig is very quiet, but you can tell he's very intelligent and listens to everything we say, and I respect that. Ingrid is really just at the starting line in her understanding. We had planned to watch the Restoration for this appointment but Ingrid's concerns sent the discussion in a totally different direction. She told us that Its hard for her to believe that God is our heavenly father, and that he could possibly know and love all of us personally. Despite the lesson going in a totally different direction than what we had planned for, Elder Gneiting and I were able to rely on the spirit and give one of the best lessons we have ever given in our companionship. The spirit was very strong and as we bore testimony I could see in Ingrid and Ludwig's eyes that they were both touched by our message. They will be on vacation for the next couple weeks, but we already have an appointment scheduled for when they get back. I'm really excited to see what happens with this great couple.

My mission as constantly reminded me how much I love people, and how life is all about people and connections and the relationships that we build with each other on this earth to build each other up and prepare together for the next steps. I have received so many blessings on my mission, but I think my greatest blessing has been the relationships that I've been able to have with all of this wonderful people in this part of the world- The members, the people I teach, and even the people I talk to every day on the street.

My mission has also made me realize how grateful I am for the people back home, my friends and family. I hope you all know how much I love and how much you all mean to me. I pray for you always and feel closer to you all than ever, even if I'm on the other side of the world.

Take care!

-Andy

Fruitful Week

2009-08-17T06:21:00.001-07:00

I'm pleased to report that the past week has been unbelievably fruitful here in Erlangen. Its been a long tough transfer, but because we've worked hard, the Lord has blessed us with lots of very prepared people. Aouni, our young single investigator from Syria, is enjoying everything we are teaching him. We had a great lesson on the plan of salvation with him, thanks to Brother Auras coming along for a joint-teach (the guys a stud). We're gonna try to set a baptism date with him this week so everyone keep your fingers crossed (praying may be better). We finally were able to meet with Walter Ganther again and will be trying to set a baptism date with him in the coming weeks as well.

Two weeks ago, during a companion exchange, Elder Gneiting and Elder Achtmann ran into an older couple picking plums off of their tree while going door to door. Out of his love for food, Elder Achtmann asked them what they planned to do with these plums they were picking. They told him that they were going to make a plum cake (its a German pastry thing, not an actual plum cake like one you would imagine in America) and invited them back to have some when they actually made it. Elder Gneiting and I were able to go by yesterday and enjoy the afternoon with them. Ingrid, the wife, was very interested and open to the Book of Mormon. She hung on our every word the whole time. It was one of those special appointments where you know that the people you are speaking with are really feeling the spirit when you testify the truth to them. We'll be meeting with them again on Friday and I'm very excited to see what happens.

The future also looks very bright for two amazing young families in our neighborhood, the Jud's and the Sahiti's. The Sahiti's live in our building and we've become very good friends with Herr Sahiti over the past few months. He loves to talk so its been quite the struggle to actually have a real appointment with him and teach him the gospel, but things are picking up and hopefully we'll be able to teach him more and make some commitments with him as the days go on.
We met the Jud's through the Sahiti's and were finally able to meet with Andreas last night as well. He was raised as a Jehova's Witness and had some bad experiences there so he's lost his faith in God, but was very receptive when we met with him. The spirit was definitely there and he is still open to find God again. I think he really listened when I told him that The Book of Mormon could be the missing link in what he searched for and didn't find in his faith years ago. We weren't able to make out another appointment with him, but we see them around all the time and I have very high hopes for him. Its great to see these wonderful families and build friendships with them, but its also so frustrating to know how happy they would be with the gospel in their lives. All we must do I guess, is have faith, patience and love for these families. After all, the Lord's time isn't our time.

This last transfer has been a tough one, but I've become stronger, and learned more about myself than ever before. I've also come closer to my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ than ever before. To put it simply, in a fit of discouragement I knelt in prayer last week and received a very profound witness from the Holy Ghost that, despite my mistakes and weaknesses, the Lord is with me and is pleased with the work I am doing and the testimony I am sharing with others. As cliche as it may sound, This week I have felt spiritually born again, and hope that this transformation will be able to bless the lives of the people I teach.

Love you all and wish you all the best.

Alles Gute!

-Andy

The Lord Provides Service Opportunities

2009-08-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

The days on a mission are definitely long, but the weeks seem to fly by faster and faster (welcome to the Andy Andersen cliche festival). Overall, I'd say that this was a pretty light-hearted and fun week. It began with a great companion exchange. I worked with Elder Hardy and was able to buy an awesome to bike helmet and old German army sweater (see pics attached). I was sick of looking like a total doofus with my goofy helmet every time I rode my bike, and When I saw the helmets that Elder Hardy and Elder Achtmann had bought the day before, I had to have one. Its hilarious when all four of us ride somewhere together now, the three of us with Army helmets and aviators and Elder Gneiting cringing because he's so embarrassed to be associated with us, Naw he's a good sport.

A couple days ago Elder Gneiting and I had a pretty spiritual finding experience. We've been trying out different techniques for finding lately, and on Friday we decided that we would try spending an hour just looking for service opportunities. At first we kind of just walked around our neighborhood, knocked on a few doors, with no success. We decided to get on our bikes and ride around for a bit and low and behold, we happened to ride past some people moving into an apartment in a building pretty close to ours. They were pretty confused as to why we would want to help them move at first, but of course gladly allowed us to help. It was pretty clear that we had touched the hearts of everyone involved in the move, which is all we could have asked for, and were even able to talk to the brother of the lady who was moving in and gave him a Book of Mormon. He seemed very interested and said that he was trying to come closer to God. Anyway the moral of the story is that The Lord had provided us with the service opportunity we had prayed for, and a person that he had prepared to accept the gospel. It was just the reminder I needed that this is the Lord's work, and that All we need is faith and vision to find those that the Lord has prepared.

Aouni came to church yesterday, which was really exciting for Elder Gneiting and I. it was our first investigator at church since we started working together. He also agreed to let us teach him twice a week. I have a really great feeling about Aouni. He has an amazing guileless quality to him and his heart seems pure and ready to accept the truth.

Yesterday evening we were finally able to visit a referral that we had been trying to get in touch with forever. They were an older couple called the Bergbauer's. They didn't have much interest in the gospel but were very interesting to talk to and fed us an unbelievable meal with all these different courses and everything. and Herr Bergbauer was basically a german Patrick Stewart, which of course was awesome. He and I talked about Utah quite a bit (they had been there on vacation the year before) and it was the first time on my mission where I felt really proud to be from Utah (ha ha). At the end of our appointment Elder Gneiting and I sang a hymn for them, and Frau Bergbauer's heart was very touched. It was just one of those times where you meet great people who, although they don't have interest in our message, had a great spirit about them and felt something when they talked with us.

Elder Gneiting are going to be working on "Catching the vision" this next week and for the rest of the transfer, which basically means improving our attitude, Christlike love for the people, and hope for people to be baptized. I have a really great feeling about the future of this area and hope that the work I do here will be a big help in the progress of Erlangen.

Take care fam. You're always in my prayers!

Love,

-Andy

Four Months in Germany

2009-07-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

Hey I'm afraid I don't have time to write a solid email this week. Don't worry next Monday's email will be epic I'm sure. But here's a few pics for you! These first ones are from when I went to Neuschwanstein Castle when I was in Kaufbeuren.

Here are a few pics from Schweinfurt. The first one is Us and The Koralewski's with Nina at her baptism (Man that day was amazing!) the second one is Elder Erekson and I in our lederhosen (I know we look unbelievably awesome!). The third one is of Me, Elder Erekson and the Koralewski's the day I left Schweinfurt (tear!).

Here are some pics from the Hitler Colosseum from today. The first one is some propaganda posters. The next are outside in the middle of the Colosseum at the end of the tour. It was really interesting. They showed a couple documentaries and one was about this propaganda film made by a German filmmaker whom Hitler hired.

Me and Bruder Rotter on my last night in Kaufbeuren (love that man!), Me and Komi in Schweinfurt (Seriously one of the coolest people I've ever met), and my district from last transfer (notice my amazing Jack Benny impression). Oh, and me and Elder Erekson doing door to door in the rain.

Trials and Struggles of Missionary Work

2009-06-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

This p-day is one of great relief. It means that I made it through the longest, and maybe the toughest week of my mission so far. Elder Erekson and I are going to be taking it easy today. After surviving a week like this last one, we're just about beat.
The week started off with a bad omen. After a district p-day in Bamberg (where I bought some amazing lederhosen!) we had an appointment with an inactive member that turned out really bad. The guy simply has let Satan take over his heart and doesn't want anything to do with the church. It was one of those appointments where the person you're talking to invites a really bad spirit by the things they say about the church and it can really drain you spiritually. The next day, we stopped by our golden Muslim investigator, and she told us she didn't want to meet with us anymore because of the pressure she was getting form all of her Muslim friends. That was a real heart breaker for us to be rejected by someone whom we knew needed the gospel and was so close to letting it change their life.

The rest of the week gave us a couple of new investigators, which was a saving grace. It also gave me not one, but two flat bike tires, which for me was kinda the the straw that broke the camel's back. To understate, it was a rough week, and Elder Erekson and I were both indescribably relieved this morning when we realized it was over.
As we say here in Germany, so gehts der missions arbeit. In other words, that's just the way the mission goes sometimes. The Koralewski's teach institute on Wednesdays, and we usually tag along. We just finished studying the book of acts. through this rough week I thought a lot about the apostles and the unbelievable persecution that they suffered, and which eventually lead to their death. I've been thinking about Paul, and how he frequently expressed is gratitude for the opportunity to face all of his trials and persecution for the Lord's sake, and my heart is filled and my spirit is re-energized form the knowledge that all I face on the mission is also for the Lord's sake. I'm grateful and honored to to be a part of the same work as Paul, and all of the other prophets, to face the trials and struggles of missionary work in the name of our savior Jesus Christ. I'm tired and a little weary, but am grateful for all of my experiences on the mission because I know that they're for the sake of the Lord.
As always, my heart and prayers are with you all. Take care.

-Andy

NOTE: The Apostle Paul was a man of vision, a man of action, and a man of letters. A visit by the resurrected Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus changed the course of his life, and from that moment he dedicated himself to preaching the gospel, becoming one of the greatest missionaries in history.

All one can do is sit back and say, "Man, the church is true!"

2009-06-03T06:21:00.000-07:00

Its been a long week. Things have been so crazy that I don't even know where to start. At the end of a week like this all one can do is sit back and say, "Man, the church is true!"
On Wednesday we went out to Meinberg, a village just outside of Schweinfurt, for an appointment with a younger girl, about 20 or so, who had accepted a Book of Mormon from us. Our spirits were high and our hopes were up for this appointment. Our first meeting with her had been by chance. We had gone there to deliver a Book of Mormon in Romanian to her grandmother and she had happened to answer the door. We got to talking with her and at the end of the conversation, despite her skepticism; she was the one who told us that she would test out the Book of Mormon. She had promised that she would read it, and although she didn't feel comfortable praying, we were able to get her to pray about it as well.
And so there we were, a week later, both having the spirit testify to us that this girl needed the gospel and it was her time to receive it. When we arrived at the house her Mom answered and was about to shut the door on us when we told her we had met with her daughter. She then curtly said "Ein moment" walked into the house and came out with the two Books of Mormon to return them to us. We tried to refuse them and tell her that we had given them to her mother and daughter, but she wouldn't listen. Elder Erekson finally had to snatch them out of her hand when she tried to throw them in the garbage can next to us.
After having the door slammed in our face, we couldn't do anything but stand there outside the house. This wasn't an unfamiliar situation, and in most cases we would simply say "Well...there it is" and move on. But the spirit was keeping us there. We knew that this girl needed the gospel, despite her Mother's rejection.
After sitting there on the side of the road for a few more minutes, we wandered up this hill on the other side of the street and up to a group of trees. There we knelt in prayer, and with all the faith within us, prayed that we might know what to do. I cant really express the power and surety of spiritual revelation that was felt by both Elder Erekson and I following the prayer. Without even talking about it, we both knew, through direct revelation from God, that we needed to go back to the street and this girl that we needed to meet with would come walking toward us. And sure enough, that's exactly what happened. It was probably the most amazing spiritual experience of my mission so far. I've felt led by the spirit before, sure, but not so directly through such a powerful feeling in the moment that I needed it.
Unfortunately there is another, very real side working against us, and I'm sad to say that in this instance Satan won this round. Despite all that we had done and felt, and what God had done to bring us to this girl, she coldly and condescendingly rejected us in a moment of weakness. She was tired and had a long day, and Satan took that and used it to totally change her countenance from the first time we met her. No matter what we said or how fervently we bore our testimony, she just replied with condescension and cold rejection. This girl had been prepared by the Lord to accept the gospel. She needed it, and we knew it through all that we had felt just moments before, but in the end she exercised her agency and rejected the message. To put it simply, Satan had won that round.
However tough this experience may have been (actually I'd have to say it was the toughest of my mission so far) I thank my Heavenly Father for it. Through this experience I learned of the reality of my being set apart as a missionary and the revelation that comes with it, as well as the reality of the adversary constantly working against us.

Don't worry though; this week wasn't a total downer. We also met this Muslim lady who we've already taught the first two lessons to yesterday and today. She's golden! Its one of those golden teaching situations that you think only happens in the missionary movies. But I guess miracles do happen in real life is well. This lady's husband has just left her, which is really a blessing in disguise the guy does not sound nice, and despite her Muslim back ground she has always had at least some belief in Christ. Things are hard for her right now, but her life situation has opened the door for her to hear the gospel. She recognizes that it was no accident that we met on the street the day her husband left and she recognizes that our message comes from God. Its almost too good to be true and I'm overwhelmed with gratitude to my heavenly father for leading us to this woman. The gospel is true, and Christ lives. That's all I can say really.

Hope all is well with you. Pray for you every day. Take care and put your trust in the Lord and will be well.

Love,

-Andy

Lord's Hand in this Work

2009-05-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

This past week was, to put it simply a weird one. Full of experiences that makes one realize how much the Lords hand is in this work.
Among the many good experiences I had this week, there was also a pretty brutal one. One I will never forget. We went by this young Russian Lady who accepted a Book of Mormon from us and seemed very interested. Unfortunately, when we went by this week she wasn't home and her husband answered the door. He proceeded to yell at us and chew us out in a way that I haven't yet experienced on the mission. We tried to explain to him that we were sorry and that we were only there because his wife had invited us to come back, but he wouldn't listen. He was too busy yelling at us about how he's sick of seeing us in the area and threatening us with the police. What made matters much worse was the fact that this guy is only two doors down from the Gypsy family, and one of them happened to be outside watching the whole thing. Not only that, a group of kids gathered around us so we had an entire audience watching us get verbally abused by this guy. But the worst part of it all was the fact that this man had taken away his wife's opportunity to hear the gospel. There is nothing more heart-wrenching than seeing someone loose the chance to learn the gospel because of the actions of another, especially when it's someone that close to them. At the end of the day when I thought back on this experience, however, some peace came to my heart when I realized that God will not punish this woman for her foolish husband's actions. There will be a time when she will have the chance to receive the gospel again.
We had a lot of really weird and great coincidences this week. We met some people, that one only meets through strange "coincidences", that really aren't coincidences at all. On Thursday, for instance, we were doing some very unfruitful street contacting, it was a German holiday, and on German holidays, everything is dead. So there we were in Stadtcentrum walking around with next to nobody on the streets. We had a few good conversations with a few people but to no avail. Just as we were heading back to our bikes, through this tiny old street, we ran into some guy watering his plants. We approached him and soon realized that he spoke English. We proceeded to chat with him for quite awhile and he told us about why he was in Germany, how he got here, all this crazy stuff that you only hear on a mission. Turns out he's from Serbia and is married to an American social worker or something of that nature for the military. He invited us into his house and showed us these sweet custom speakers and amplifiers that he had made. Olin and Karl, you would have died, the sound of these things was amazing! Anyway, we talked with him for about two hours and he invited us back to tell him about the Book of Mormon. He was seriously the friendliest person I think I've met so far on the mission and I'm way psyched to meet with him again. His name is Vladmir but he usually goes by "Komi", which is the Russian translation of "Skeeter" I guess.
On Friday, another weird thing happened. Something that seriously never happens, but did and it was crazy! We teach this guy from Costa Rica, named Luis, English class on Friday evenings and as we were walking to the church a guy came and approached us. He asked us if we were Mormon. We told him yes and he asked if we had a card or something we could give him. We were distraught because it was the one time neither of us had our cards on us. We offered him a Book of Mormon, and he said "No thanks, I already have one, I'm a member." Needless to say we were shocked. So we invited him to church on Sunday. We found out yesterday while talking to him at church that he was baptized a couple years ago but immediately fell away. He's not the friendliest guy in the world but he says he wants to get a testimony again and wants to meet with us more. Just goes to show you how led around we are, and how much the Lord is invested in this work.
We also had an institute party on Friday (Elder and Sister Koralewski teach institute to a couple of the young single adults and we always come along) and we watched this movie version of the book of Acts that was made by an Evangelical denomination. It was freakin' sweet because Dean Jones (ya know, from the love bug and Blackbeard's Ghost and all those old Disney movies) played Luke and narrated the whole thing, and James Brolin played Peter! When it was over I said "Man James Brolin was good, but I think he's way to attractive to be an Apostle."
Speaking of Movies, Elder Erekson told me that last Christmas he was allowed to watch It's a Wonderful Life! Now that I know that, I'm gonna do everything in my power to make sure I get to watch it this Christmas!
Anyway, you are all in my prayers always and to answer your question Mom, yes! I do feel your arms around me and your comfort all the time! Love you all and take care!

Alles Gute!

-Andy

Transfer to Schweinfurt

2009-05-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

Anyway, I'm pleased to say that the transfer went smoothly. My new companion, Elder Erekson, and I are getting along really well. He's a music major and has an amazing singing voice and all that. He's a little more by-the-book than and not quite as chill as Elder Hartmann was, but he's also really open minded and patient. He's a great missionary with a great work ethic and I can already tell that I'm going to learn a lot from him.
Schweinfurt is a great area! Our ward is military so its half American and most of the Germans speak English. Everything is translated and it was a real treat yesterday to actually be able to follow everything that went on in Church. The members are very warm and there is a great spirit in the ward. And from what Elder Erekson tells me the ward missionary work is great in this area, which will be a breath of fresh air from Kaufbeuren.
I think as far as the work goes, I'm liking this area better so far. Its funny, I didn't realize how spoiled I was in Kaufbeuren until I came to this area. I came from a car area with tons of eating appointments and a chill native speaking trainer to a bike area with tons of work to do and a companion who puts a little more on my shoulders than I'm comfortable with, and whats even funnier is that I'm loving it! This area is really putting me through the refiners fire and for that I am very excited and grateful!
So far Schweinfurt seems to be a very successful area! We have three baptismal dates with a possible fourth and fifth on the way! isn't that amazing?! And yesterday when we were contacting Elder Erekson and I were amazed at how nice and receptive the people were. I told him, "Wir sind nicht in Deutschland!"
One particularly fun experience yesterday happened while going Door to Door. We met this Gypsy family that was FreiChrist (Born again Christian). Born-Again's are always tough because they are so caught up in the idea that all they need is the bible and to have Christ in their heart. They just see us as another religion, and I cant say I blame them in the slightest. Anyway, We were talking with this family for what seemed like forever. They were really nice but liked to argue, especially the daughter who was practically yelling in our face, but Elder Erekson explained to me after that that was just the gypsy culture, and while we were talking with them the spirit was still there. It was different from other situations where you get into arguments or bible bashes with people. Normally once that happens the general rule is to get outta there as soon as possible, but with this family there was something worth sticking around for. Just as I was getting frustrated and wanted to leave, I saw in the Mother's eyes, who just ten minutes ago had told us she had no interest whatsoever, that she was listening to us. I saw in her eyes that, while her obnoxious daughter was being a smart Alec with us, for lack of a better term, that she knew that we were sincere, and that she respected us. And at the end of our conversation, against all odds, they said we could stop by again next week! All I can say is that its amazing what the spirit of the Lord can do.
Ok, now for my embarrassing German screw-up of the week, and this one is just ridiculous. It was eight o'clock and we were making phone calls. I had mine on Speaker phone so Elder Erekson could help me out if I didn't understand. Anyway, I was talking to a street contact and I asked him if he would like us to come over, and he said "Ja, Ja, Warum Nicht" (yeah yeah Why not). Then Elder Erekson told me to tell him "Wir haben keine Adresse" (We have no address) and I thought he told me to tell him "Wir haben kein Interesse," So after asking this man if we could come over and teach him, I told him that we have no interest! I think he was really offended, of course who wouldn't be. Elder Erekson immediately took the phone from me and explained to him that we meant we have no address, not no interest. haha after he was laughing at me pretty hard and I was too, even though I felt like a total doofus! Oh well, just another story I can talk about after my mission and laugh at I guess.
I guess that's it for now. Love you all and I'll talk to ya on Mothers Day!!!!

-Andy

God doesn't answer our prayers solely based on our desires and limited vision

2009-04-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

First of all, thank you for your prayers. I felt them, and they definitely worked. It was a great week with lots of success. Elder Hartmann and I have really tried to do our part to get rid of some of the bad habits of this area and make it more successful, and it's paid off. Herr Labuda is feeling much better about things now. We had a great joint-teach with him and our Branch President. He worked with Herr Labuda on figuring out a way where he could pay tithing and feel more secure about it. At the end of the appointment there was a great spirit and I could tell Herr Labuda felt very good about everything. I feel very confident that he will be baptized soon enough and remain a stalwart member.
We also have a new investigator family. They're Russian and don't speak German very well, but they have a 13 year old daughter that speaks pretty well and translates for us. Unfortunately I won't be able to meet with them and see their progress because guess what... I'm being transfered! I leave for Shweinfurt (all I know is that its north of Munich) on Wednesday to work with Elder Erickson.
Every Sunday morning at the end of the transfer, the missionaries get their transfer calls. If you get a call from the A.P.'s, one of you will be transfered. If you get a call from President Condie, one of you will be an A.P., a zone leader, or a mission secretary. If you get don't get a call, you stay together in your same area for another transfer. Anyway, all last week I was terrified that Elder Hartmann would be transfered and the weight of this area would be on my weak, inexperienced shoulders. Yesterday morning was the usual routine, at least for about a half hour. Elder Hartmann's alarm went off at 6:30, he got up to go to the shower, and I stayed in bed. Only I wasn't sleeping soundly like usual. I was lying there nervously anticipating the phone call that would hold my destiny for the next six weeks. As I lie there I prayed to my heavenly father, and said "Father if it be thy will, please let Elder Hartmann stay with me in Kaufbeuren for at least another transfer."
Well the minutes Dragged on, and just as I was starting to feel comfortable and think that we wouldn't get a call, I heard the faint buzzing of our cell phone in the other room. Hear it comes I thought. So I answered with a shaky "just got out of bed" voice and it was Elder Van Wagnen, one of the A.P.'s. "Elder Andersen," he said, "You're needed somewhere else." God had answered my prayer, just not in the way I expected. Elder Hartmann would be staying in Kaufbeuren, but I would be leaving! Gotta admit I was pretty shocked all yesterday. I didn't think for a second that I would be transferred. But so it is that God doesn't answer our prayers solely based on our desires and limited vision, but also on What he knows is best for us and for those we serve, and with his all-seeing eye. I would be kidding myself if I didn't admit that I was a little bummed and scared for many reasons. I was just starting to really build relationships with the members in this area, and I was just starting to feel like I really was getting into the swing of things here. And Its been such a great blessing to have a companion that I get along with so well and have such good times with. Its always scary to venture into the unknown but Its comforting when I know that it is divinely inspired. I'm grateful for the great time I've had in my first transfer and know that God will send me where he needs me and bless me for my service in this next transfer, and for the rest of my mission.
Another side note: Elder Hartmann's new companion is Elder Ray, who was in my group and a good buddy of mine in the MTC. The guy's a stud and I know he's gonna do some great work here.
I love you all and pray for you every day. I thank you again for your prayers. They keep me going and bless my work here. 'till next time!

-Andy

The most important work on the earth right now!

2009-04-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

This week, in the simplest of terms, was a tough one. The kind they warn you about in the MTC. Franz Labuda, our golden investigator who was going to be baptized yesterday, informed us on Saturday that he didn't want to be baptized because he felt that he couldn't live the law of tithing. It is a very valid concern, considering his situation, and we did everything we could to reassure him that the Lord would provide away. The three of us knelt together and Elder Hartmann said a beautiful prayer that brought the spirit so strong. When the prayer was over Elder Hartmann was in tears and Herr Labuda was pretty close to being so as well. But after all that we could do, and all that the spirit could do, Herr Labuda still declined his baptism. For many reasons, this was a real emotional struggle for me. For this entire transfer, this tough first transfer of not knowing the language and trying to deal with all the rejection in the right way, Herr Labuda's faith and baptism date has been one thing that reinvigorates my spirits. Whenever I was discouraged I would think to myself, Herr Labuda is proof for me that people actually do accept the gospel. And just a day before his baptism, he canceled on us. All Saturday I was wondering if I could endure two years of what Elder Hartmann refers to as "the foolishness of the people" and if I was doing any good here. Amongst all of these dark thoughts, one thought gave me some hope like a small weak light bulb in a dark room. "There's no way you would ever feel this bad about Labuda if the gospel wasn't true." The spirit whispered to me. I quickly realized that my feelings of heartache for Herr Labuda were a sign that this is the most important work on the earth right now, and that I should do as 2 Nephi 31: 20 says, to "Press forward with steadfastness in Christ, with a perfect brightness of hope." This gospel is true, and it is accepted by people, even in Europe. What I must do now is have an increased love for Herr Labuda, because I know that he has a strong testimony, and I know that if he stays true to what he knows that he will eventually be baptized.
Hope all is well with the rest of the fam and thank you for your prayers and support. Love you all!

-Andy

The joy I got from doing the lords work surpasses any birthday

2009-04-13T05:42:00.000-07:00

Hallo Familie,

It is 12:30 on Easter Monday. The town is dead. Everything is closed, which is kind of annoying because we can't do any shopping or run any errands, but its also very peaceful.
Spring has arrived in full force. The weather is perfect. The sun is always shining. I'm so grateful to be in an area where I can drive through the beautiful Bavarian countryside (it really looks just like the sound of music). And I can't believe how green it is here! You seriously have never seen rolling hills this fetchin' green! (oh man I'm starting to use fetch a lot now. I'm definitely a missionary now).
I'm happy to report that this birthday was one of the best of my life. I usually hate birthdays. So much hype and attention over a day that is just like any other. And you can't help but get your expectations up, and the day never matches your expectations. So what made this birthday so great was the fact that I had no expectations except to go out and do the work. And the day ended up being pretty successful. We got a new investigator! What a great birthday present eh? His name is Beudros Essin, a turk who owns (at least i think he owns it) a bistro in Neugablonz He seems pretty open and I'm excited to teach him.

We also found some minor successes going Door to Door that day. We were able to give out some pass along cards, and a couple people told us to come back. Its amazing how the joy I got from doing the lords work surpasses any birthday present I've ever had.
I was able to do something for myself as well on my birthday however. When we returned home that evening, Hartmann and I ordered some pizza, Ice cream, and I ordered myself a nice big coke! I also got a happy birthday song from Sister Condie and a happy birthday song over the phone form Elder Kubik and Elder Sanchez, so that was nice too.
Another special opportunity I had on my birthday was to be able to ponder on the progress I've made since my last birthday. I thought about who I was a year ago. I was having a hard time believing in anything. And now I'm here, on a mission. As I thought about these things I thanked my heavenly father for knocking me into shape, and I thanked my savior for picking me up during those times and leading me to this wonderful place I am in now, in his presence, being a part of his work.
Next Sunday Herr Labuda is getting baptized! I'm really blessed to be able to see a convert baptism this early in my mission I think, because It really helps me to realize that despite the tidal wave of rejection we get every day, that people do accept the gospel!

Hope all is well with you all and that you had a happy Easter. Take care and thanks for your prayers!

Love,

-Andy

Our Message is Jesus Christ and his Plan

2009-04-07T18:01:00.000-07:00

Meine Familie,

It's been a great P-Day. Just got back from Neuschwanstein Castle! As soon as I figure out the best way to send pictures I'll send you the pics. The place was beautiful. The castle is so cool reminds me of something from Disneyland. At least the feeling of being somewhere exciting like that was like the feeling of being at Disneyland, and it made me think of how awesome it'll be the next time I get to go to Disneyland with my family.
And everything around the castle was amazing! We took a hike up around the castle, it was a breathtaking view of the Castle and the valley behind it. We also went down to this lake that had a beautiful view of the mountains. I feel pretty lucky that I was able to go to Neuschwantstein this early in my mission, and even luckier that I was able to go at all. Elder Strong, an elder in my district, was telling me that most missionaries don't even get a chance to go to Neuschwanstein.
I've been in Augsburg the past couple days for Conference, which was so great as you know. Elder Holland's talk was my favorite. In Priesthood Elder Eyring gave some great council to new missionaries struggling with a language that really gave me a confidence boost. He said something along the lines of, "Your simple testimony may touch hearts more than the words of your experienced companion". I have seen it happen. It's great to know that in these first months of not knowing the language very well I can always simply bear testimony, and that will always invite the spirit.
A lot of great experiences this week. Discouraging, but great because I have learned so much from them. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for giving me these experiences and putting me through the refiners fire. On Wednesday we went to Bad Wörishofen, a little city in our huge area. Elder Hartmann had never been there before so we thought we'd give it a try. There's no way I ever could have prepared myself for the high level of rejection that we would get in this awful Twilight Zone of a city. The place was a huge retirement community. The average age on the street was seriously about 70. Its pretty normal to get funny looks while street contacting, but as we walked through the streets of Bad Wörishofen those funny looks were taken to a whole new level. We did end up getting one contact, which makes days like that one all worth it, but there were two specific rejections on the street that stuck out to me the most and taught me the most. One was when we had just arrived. We approached two old ladies with the usual "Endschuldigung gany kurtz," and with out missing a beat, one of the ladies looked me straight in the eye and said very firmly, in English, "We are NOT going to talk about Jesus Christ right now. We want to go get some coffee." Her stern words, so stern that I would almost consider her taking the Lord's name in vain the way she said it, were a dagger through my heart. Firstly, because it was in English, and it really bothered me to hear my Saviors name in that tone. Secondly, because it really struck me, more than it ever has before, that when people reject us, they aren't really rejecting US. They are rejecting Jesus Christ and his atonement. This made me feel awful for this woman, and all the people who rejected us so harshly that day. This was a great experience because it increased my love for the people, and my appreciation for and testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
My other memorable rejection of the day was with a young guy, practically the only one in the city, who knew the Bible backwards and forwards. He believed that all the revelation we will ever have is the bible and that all churches since the time of Christ, including ours, are of the devil (its a shame that so many people can recognize the apostasy but don't recognize the restoration in our church). We proceeded to get into a pretty intense Bible bash with this guy for a good twenty minutes. Finally, in my broken German, I said to him, look... we could sit here and argue with you about these things all day, but this isn't our message. Our message is not the bible. our message is not the book of Mormon. Our message is Jesus Christ and the plan that he has for you. The guy kept on trying to bash and eventually walk away, but I felt good about the fact that I had testified in Christ and done my best to spread his message.
Near the end of the day we went to this park just out side of the city to get a change of scene and to do some more contacting. Unfortunately, there weren't many people in the park so we only were able to talk to one more person, but it was a great opportunity for a breather that I needed from the days discouragement. As we walked through this beautiful park in the evening sun, all was calm and I was able to feel my savior' love and I knew that he was pleased with my efforts of the day, and that was all I needed to be happy. Whats great about this work, from the missionaries perspective, is that the Lord doesn't care about the outcome of your labors. He only cares that you try your best. What a great comfort that is.

Love,

-Andy

A country for Dog Lovers

2009-04-02T04:27:00.000-07:00

Well I made it through my 2nd week and all is pretty much well. My German improves a little each day but its still awful. On Tuesday we taught some friends of a member family at their home and I said something really wrong and all the kids in the family laughed at me. Oh man it was terrible. Not that I blame them, I´m sure I would have laughed too, its just a huge discouragement when you´re trying your best to say something that will help investigators in a language you barely know and then have people laughing at you while you do it. Ah well, all part of the missionary experience ya? I just gotta learn not to let things like that get me down I guess.

Yesterday we went to another little village in our area and once again it was firmly in the grasp of the Catholic Church. Every door "Kein interesse, Ich bin Catolisch." That Catholic Church is killin' me man.
Something I am really enjoying about Germany right now is the fact that it is definitely a country for Dog lovers. There are quite a few places in our area where literally everybody has a dog. And they really love their dogs here. Luciana Beudner, one of our investigators, has this little dog named Benny and he loves me. He always curls up against my leg when we're sitting on the couch. What can I say, "Ever since I can remember animals have always loved me"[A grandpa Andersen Colloquialism].
The food here has definitely not disappointed me. We had a bunch of eating appointments this past week and oh man was it awesome. Just FYI the bread here is so good. I don't know how I'm gonna be able to adjust to lame American bread when I come home. Once you have bread in Germany you feel like you've never had real bread before.
I think my favorite experience this week was the opportunity I had to teach in English. A less active member in our ward is married to a girl from Nigeria who of course speaks English and we were able to teach her and her sister. I don't know how interested they are (they have a lot of questions but I don't know if they are because they are interested or they just are kinda testing us) but it was really nice to be able to express myself while teaching the gospel. And despite how interested they were I could tell that what I said touched them somehow, at least I hope it did. But it was so great to be able to really be part of the conversation during a lesson rather than just a side note that only says a few things in broken German. I also know, however, that If I am diligent that my German will improve and I will be able to fully express myself and invite the spirit in German. Right now its just a matter of patience until I get to that point.
Ok, now for something hilarious. We have this investigator named Dr. Schönweiz. He's this crazy old medicine man (I'm pretty sure he doesn't really have the credentials to call himself "Dr.") who comes up with all these inventions and formulas for disease cures and sends them to Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. He showed us all of them yesterday and Elder Hartmann and I couldn't help but bust a gut reading them, because their ridiculous but he's completely serious about them. He does LSD and stuff and told Elder Hartmann once that he saw God as a chicken or something. He also thinks that when Jesus turned the water into wine, that he ate some type of flower and then peed into the wine to heal the people, so hilarious I can't even take it!
Well I think that's all for now. Keep on rockin in the free world. Take Care!
-Andy

Meine Familie,

2009-03-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

Town hall in Kaufbeuren, Germany

Meine Familie,

Meine gute ich bin hier! I officially made it through my first week in Germany, and already have some great experiences under my belt. Kaufbueren is a great town, not very touristy and very German. At least I think its very German. The members here are really nice and very patient with my lack of German. And anyone who can speak English always speaks English with me. They love to speak English here its hilarious.

We have an investigator, Luciana Beudner, who had a really hard childhood and it makes me really grateful for not only my loving parents and siblings, but all the love I have from my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. What a great blessing that is. I hope I have done a good job at returning the love that all of you have given me.

The first day was pretty ridiculous. I've never been that fatigued and tired in my whole life. I got two hours of sleep on the plane and my last night in the MTC we pulled an all nighter so I was dyin! After we landed, they put us right on the train to do some contacting. It was really fun and a lot less scary than I thought it would be. I think Elder Walking Eagle and I got lucky though. We first talked to an old Lady who was pretty easy to understand. And then we talked to a Bulgarian lady who spoke about as much German as we did so that was fun.

We stayed in the Hotel Hausstein our first night and I can honestly say it was the best nights sleep I've ever had! To put it simply, I was out!
The next morning we met our companions and said our goodbyes pretty quick. It was wider to leave my MTC family, but I think all of us were ready for the next chapter in our missions so it wasn't too sad. Besides, we'll all see each other again throughout the Mish.

My companion's name is Elder Hartmann. He's from Switzerland and has been the perfect trainer for my personality I think. He helps me with my German and I help him with his English, so that's fun. He's pretty chill, which is such a relief in this first part of my mission to have a companion that isn't too intense. We have a similar sense of humor, which as you know is pretty important to me. We have some good laughs, which I think is important in this work for the sake of keeping spirits up.

Our area is pretty spread out--about an hour or so in each direction. We have a hideous little car that makes a sound very similar to the Elantra when it accelerates. Good stuff.
The members I've met so far are really great. They really enjoy having the missionaries over I think. On the second day we visited Schwester Müller Cladiwa for lunch, a really sweet lady who kinda reminds me of Buffy. On Friday we helped Bruder Rotter put up some cupboards. It was awesome because it was just like the time we helped Grandpa put up his cupboards in the garage. Good times. After we were done he fed me my first real Bavarian meal--some big pretzels, weisswurst with sweet mustard, which was delicious, and my first Beer (non-alcoholic of course). Not gonna lie, the beer tasted awful, but I was happy to have it for the sake of German nostalgia.
We have a variety of interesting investigators. My favorite is Oliver Friedrich. He's a great example of someone who doesn't have the appearance of a typical golden investigator, but has the light of Christ in them. He's really into heavy metal and his apartment looks like a shrine to death metal and goth. The guy has long greasy hair and piercings, and when he switches to English he swears a lot. But he's an amazingly nice guy, growing testimony of the gospel. He has a sincere desire to change. He prayed for us last time we met with him and it was really powerful. After he kinda had a "did I just say that" moment. It was really cool to share that with him.

I'm also really excited that I get to be here to see an investigators baptism next month. His name is Franz Labuda, an older polish gentlemen who I've had the privilege of teaching once so far with Elder Hartmann.
On Thursday we talked to the Hepfner family for the first time and unfortunately the last time. It's unbelievably frustrating to see such a nice family have the truth right in front of them and be unwilling to even give it a chance. All part of the work I guess. Fangen wir an.
On Saturday we wanted to try somewhere new so we went to this little village just outside of Kaufbeuren. It was crazy because the place was more Catholic than Provo is Mormon. Every door we knocked on, we got "Es tut mir leid, Ich bin Catolisch" over and over again. It was outa control! Elder Hartmann said to me "You always here that Bavaria is totally catholic but this is the first time I've ever really experienced it.

My first Sunday here was a pretty interesting experience. I had to introduce myself and say a few words in sacrament meeting. I had thought out in my head what I was going to say and the correct way to say it in German so I wasn't that nervous. Then when I got up there I totally slaughtered it haha. I looked out at all the members and they gave me this look like "Awww poor Elder." It was really cool to be in a sacrament meeting all in German though. A testimony builder really. Just showed me that the church is the same every where, and that the church is true everywhere. I told the ward when I introduced myself that while I was in the MTC, the German speaking branch was the biggest in the MTC, and I know that the reason is because the Lord's work is succeeding in Germany and in all of Europe. I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for sending me here and allowing me to be part of his work in this beautiful part of the world with these wonderful people.

Take care everyone. Love you always!

-Andy

Elder Andersen Arrives in Germany

2009-03-18T20:24:00.001-07:00

Dear Brother and Sister Andersen,

We are happy to tell you that Elder Andersen arrived yesterday in Munich. He has met his companion and they are on their way to Kaufbeuren, Germany, his first area. We thought you might enjoy these pictures from last evening. In the second, he is pointing to his assigned area. During his orientation yesterday he was given time to write you a letter, which should arrive in about ten days. Included will be other information about the mission. In addition, Monday is preparation day and he will have time to email you and give you more details.

We are delighted to have him in our mission and we thank you for helping him to prepare himself so well. We are sure that he will be a great missionary. We love him already and we will take good care of him. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

President and Sister Robert G. Condie

Germany Munich/Austria Mission

And Off we go...

2009-03-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

"I did it! I graduated from the MTC." (was Andy's statement when he called us from the airport this morning at 6:18 a.m.) He shared feelings of accomplishment, gaining the spirit of missionary work, love for his district family, and excitement to fly to Germany.

We have been following his flight status on delta.com for the past 3 hours and Andy is currently over the North Atlantic Ocean with 4 hours left to landing in Munich.

The phone call brought with it joy and tears as our Son leaves this Continent for a new adventure!

Andy has brought so much Joy to our home these past few months! WE look forward to much more. WE MISS you our dear Elder but know you are doing the LORDS work and couldn't be more pleased!

LOVE and HUGS from afar. XOXOXO

Made it Fam! Top o the world!

2009-03-12T21:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I officially survived the MTC. It's been quite the journey and I've loved the hard times as well as all the wonderful times! I've been pretty nervous about leaving to Germany this week but something happened yesterday that has reinvigorated my excitement for this most important work!
I've been talking to this investigator in the referral center named Barbara. She's an amazing Lady that is so golden I can't even take it. We read the book of Mormon together over the phone yesterday and there was such and amazing spirit. She has a very close relationship with Christ and a love for the word of God that I have learned so much from. As we prayed together over the phone for the last time, I remembered Mosiah chapter 28, which talks about the sons of Mosiah wanting to preach to the Lamanites because they had an amazingly strong desire to bring all men to Christ. I was once again assured that this is why I'm here. To be a vessel through which the Lord brings people his gospel and the gift of eternal life! I'm so excited and humbled that the Lord would allow me to be a part of his work in Germany and Austria and I know that great things are happening there right now.
When I really think about it, the one thing that got me through the tough days in the MTC was Love- the love of my family, which I feel every day, the love of my District and wonderful friends that I've made here, and the love of my Savior. Love is all it took. I am made strong through the love of my family, friends, and savior, and I hope I have shared and will share that love with other people as much as I can.
It's truly amazing how, even when I think about how I haven't seen you for two months, I'm missing March Madness with Dad right now, hanging out with my two best friends in the world (you know I'm talking about you Olin and Karl), playing with Lucy and Ruby, and being with my wonderful saint of a Mother, I have not once felt far away from any of you. You are always with me and I am always with you. And I know that even when I'm in another part of the world I will feel closer to all of you than ever! I pray for your happiness and well-being, and look forward to the wonderful times that lie ahead of us as a family. Take care everyone!
Love,

-Andy

Life in the MTC - Feb 1, 2009

2009-03-07T16:41:00.001-08:00

Elder Andersen's District
Elders Zenger, Andersen and Richardson
Elder Andersen at the Temple

I can't believe I haven't told you about my teachers yet! They're both amazing guys and we love 'em to death. Brother Capps has been working at the MTC for a couple years now. He has been back from his mission a couple of years. He is seriously like the coolest Nerd I've ever known (besides Daniel [Wilcox] of course). And get this, he never dry cleaned his suits through out his WHOLE mission. Isn't that hilarious. Brother Turville is our other teacher. He just got back from the mission in August and he is a stud! He jokes a lot in the classroom which really keeps spirits up and helps me learn a lot better.

I can't believe That I only have two weeks left. Then I'm off to Germany! I'm super excited, but I'm starting to realize how unprepared I am and how I really need to kick it in to 5th gear these last two weeks. I've seen too many missionaries who have given up the last two weeks in the MTC and slacked off. I really don't want that to be me so I guess I just need to pray for strength and for the spirit to be with me.

And I Could Not Deny it!

2009-02-19T21:47:00.001-08:00

This week I've had some really great experiences and my passion and testimony for the work is rapidly growing. Elder Walking Eagle and I are getting along really well. The spirit has really strengthened our unity as a companionship. He's always trying to do everything exactly the right way, and I've learned a lot from him regarding that. At the devotional on Tuesday we had the privilege and blessing of hearing from M. Russel Ballard. His talk was a treasure chest of principles, but one thought he gave right at the beginning was really an answer to my prayers. He said something along the lines of "Never miss the opportunity to testify that God and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith." For weeks I have been trying as hard as I can to increase my testimony of Joseph Smith so I can confidently testify of it to investigators. Earlier in the day, just hors before Elder Ballard spoke, Elder Walking Eagle and I were wandering around the bookstore and a card with Joseph smith on it happened to catch my eye. I picked it up and opened it and it quoted Joseph Smith talking about the first vision and the truthfulness of it: "I knew it, and I knew that God knew it. And I could not deny it." It made me realize that I could never deny what I know to be the truth, that Joseph Smith was and is indeed a prophet of God and that through him the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored. I'm so happy to know that and I can't wait to share that with the people in Germany. Speaking of which, I'm actually already sharing it with some people over the phone. In the referral center, you have the option to teach an investigator over the phone if they don't want the missionaries yet. Yesterday, our instructor in the referral center asked us to pray for our own investigators, and wouldn't you know it, after only five or so minutes, a lady called to order a book of Mormon and I have my very own REAL investigator! Twenty minutes later I talked to another lady whose house is flooded right now and doesn't want to have people over, so now I have two! And today, Elder Peddler, an elder in the branch whose leaving in a week, handed over one of his progressing RC investigators to me, so now I have three! three people I'm personally teaching the gospel to! I'm really excited for the opportunity to test my teaching chops, and more excited to practice trusting in the spirit of the lord to speak through me and touch these peoples hearts. I'm a little nervous because I don't feel ready at times but I know that the lord will make up for my inexperience. So I'm reading "Our Heritage" right now and as I was reading it a couple days ago during personal study I all of a sudden came across the name of none other than Erastus Snow! And not only that, it was talking about his mission for the church. It quoted him talking about how he left to the mission field with only the clothes on his back and a few coins in his pocket. It made me so proud of my third great grandfather and his sacrifice, and it made me feel really good to think that I'm honoring him by following in his footsteps. It also made me think of my namesake, Andrew Andreasen, and how he was converted to the church in Denmark. I know that my ancestors are proud of my choice to serve a mission and I hope they are pleased with what I do each day.

Time has passed away as if it were like unto a dream!

2009-02-12T17:06:00.000-08:00

The Referral Center continues to be a great learning experience. I talked to this born-again Christian who told me she wasn't interested, but when I asked her if she knew anyone else that might be interested in hearing our message she gave me like four or five names and numbers. She said she wanted her friends to be born-again as well, but hopefully they will end up LDS instead. Sucker! haha just joking. But I did learn a very valuable lesson in the R.C. later in the week. I was really discouraged in there because I had just got off the phone with a lady whose daughter had called for a Book of Mormon. The lady was really rude and told me that she and her daughter were Baptists and Christians, NOT MORMONS! and hung up the phone pretty quick. I was so sad because I felt like I should have said more and I also felt bad for that 18 year-old girl whose Mom was hindering her salvation (not that she meant to). About a half hour later, however, I was able to get a guy to have the missionaries visit him, along with his parents and grandparents! From that experience I learned that there will be plenty of discouragement on the Mission, but the joy that comes from seeing those few people baptised will make up for that discouragement times 10! I know that the sadness I feel when people don't accept the missionaries, and the great joy I feel that comes from when they do, is there because the church is true.
Next week will be the first time I teach a lesson in German! I'm freakin' out about it right now but I know that it'll be ok. I just feel like I can't speak even close to enough German to give a whole lesson already!
Speaking of "already," can you believe that I've already been here just about a whole MONTH?! It's ridiculous how fast it seems it went by. And time only seems to go by faster and faster. Before I know it, I'll be in Germany or Austria, scared silly but loving every minute of it! It's just like Jacob said, "time has passed away as if it were like unto a dream." I think that's what he says at the end of the book of Jacob but I'm not sure if I quoted it right. It's the second to last verse in the book of Jacob so look it up.

More than a Cardboard Cut Out...

2009-02-07T13:01:00.000-08:00

Ok, so this week has been really good. lots of great experiences to share with you all. I'm feeling a little sick today so that’s kinda discouraging but nothing I can't beat.

The other day, my district and I went to the Teaching Evaluation, where teachers evaluate you as you teach a lesson and give you feedback. Halfway through our lesson, our teacher stopped Elder Walking Eagle and I and gave us quite possibly the best advice I've received in the MTC so far. She told me to be myself. And she told me this because I was teaching the lesson like a robot. When I walked out of the building I realized that I was on my way to becoming the very thing I swore I would never be...A cardboard cut-out missionary! Oh the horror! the horror! For some reason, I thought that I had to be rid of my old self and find some completely new identity in order to be a good missionary, when in reality I will never be a good missionary if I'm not being myself! Since this epiphany things have been going a lot better and I'm a lot happier now that I'm not afraid to be myself. And my lessons have been much better because they are sincere instead of robotic. It's a great blessing to know that, while the Lord wants me to improve myself daily, he loves me for who I am and wants me to serve him in the best way I can--by being myself.

On Tuesday night's devotional, Elder Clate W. Mask of the seventy spoke and It was one of the best talks I've ever heard. His grandpa was a missionary in

Mexico

and was able to teach the president in 1910, and after that had government safety because the president loved them so much, just like Ammon! Anyway, he said something that really struck me; "Whatever your motives were for coming, you are where the lord wants you to be." It made me realize that my motives for coming here don't really matter anymore. What does matter is the fact that I am here, where the lord wants me to be! In other words, being here is the motive to be here on its own, if that makes sense.

Getting along with my companion was a real struggle this week. Luckily, every Wednesday we have companionship inventory, which is a meeting just between us when we talk about things we need to work on and any problem we had. It took a good half hour to forty five minutes, but my companion and I were able to throw everything out on the table and work all of our problems out. It was really hard, but with the Lords help we were able to resolve our differences. I'm sure there will be more things for us to work out every week. But It's great to know that even two people as different as we are can be unified through the spirit.

Unselfish Desire to SERVE

2009-01-31T08:33:00.000-08:00

Notes from Elder Andersen
January 29, 2009

When you let Christ enter your life, you make yourself humble enough to submit to his will. That's something I learned during my first week in the MTC. Many of us think we have things figured out, but we must submit our will to the Lord if we truly want him to be in our lives.

Things are really starting to go well for me here. The work is tough, but if it wasn't I would be doing something wrong. Right? Of course right! (Fiddler on the Roof reference). My companion and I still struggle a little with each other but we talk it out and we're both trying to get along. We are starting to teach and plan really well together. Don't worry about me, I'm where I'm supposed to be and I know that you're being blessed and that makes me so happy!

THANKS ANDY FOR THE REMINDERS of our purpose...

Life's Lessons Begin - January 22, 2009

2009-01-22T20:31:00.000-08:00

Guten Tag! Well it's Thursday and I've officially made it through my first week at the MTC! Things were tough at first but now I feel a constant happiness, no matter how tough things get or how homesick I get. Those feelings still come but I cope, focus on the work and its all ok. Mom the lord has definately answered your prayers. Every night I feel you praying for me and I can feel your arms around me. Now that I have some time, let me tell you some of my favorite experiences I've had so far. On the second or third day, the sisters in my district were really feeling sick and we had the opportunity of giving them a blessing. Sister Price asked for me and Elder Walking Eagle to bless her. Elder Walking Eagle (by the way Walking Eagle is actually just his last name. His first name is Shane) annointed her and I gave her a blessing. I've given a couple blessings before but the spirit is so strong here that this one was really special. I could literally feel my heavenly father speaking through me. I know the sisters were grateful but I was especially grateful to them for giving me such a wonderful opportunity.On Tuesday we taught our first lesson in the T.E. which is a program where you preach to people posing as investigators. I was really nervous and discouraged about it all day and it really had me down. During Gym I was at the height of my anxiety and some random Elder came up and talked to me and we got talking about movies and some of my favorite actors. It really calmed me down and I quickly realized that that Elder was an answer to my prayers. It taught me to make sure and be kind and social with everyone just in case their day isn't going well. When it came time to teach our lesson, all my fears were put to rest as the Lord stepped in and empowered us. We ended up teaching a very good and thorough lesson. There's always room to improve but for our first lesson I'd say it was pretty darn good.

A Mother's NOTE: Thanks for the good examples and unselfish acts of kindness people show each day!

OUR FIRST LETTER...

2009-01-20T16:36:00.000-08:00

Here is most of our first hand-written-in-the-mail letter (in Andy's exact words). Andy has enjoyable voice in his writing, it wouldn't be the same to paraphrase. Enjoy...

Dear Fam,
Aloha! Or I guess I should say gutenhaben! It is now 10:05 p.m. and my first day at the MTC is almost over. In all honesty, I'm Trippin' a little right now but I know that this will pass and that the Lord is with me. Thank you so much for helping me leave over the past 5 weeks. Its been a crazy ride but I think we pulled it all off with flying colors! My gratitude especially goes out to you mom. Without your Faith and amazing organization skills we never would've made it.
Dad, thanks for your amazing example to me as a husband, father, and all around top-notch guy! While I have many heroes that are writers, actors, filmmakers, and historical figures, you are my only hero as simply a man. I hope on my mission I will be able to have the same traits that make you such a christ-like person. Mom, I'm almost scared to write at this moment because I don't want to cry in front of my companion over the overwhelming love I feel for you. I know I don't always show it, but I love you and love being around you so much that right now I'm kinda missing you the most. Thank you for being such an amazing mother and for showering me with love all these years. I can feel your love and even can feel your arms around me at this very moment. And right now I hope you feel the hugs and kisses I'm sending your way. Well today was fun, exciting, horrifying and uplifting all at the same time! My companion's name is Elder Walking Eagle. He's Native American and seems like a way cool Guy. Keep being the Amazing people you are and don't miss me too much! Buy the ticket, take the ride!
LOVE, ANDY

GRATITUDE

2009-01-19T20:40:00.001-08:00

Our family would be ungrateful if we didn't thank all those who have sent us sweet messages of love and support about our Dear Elder Andersen! We are so grateful for all the help in raising our son! We could have never done it alone. What awesome family, friends, neighbors and YM leaders we have had throughout our lives as parents. This BLOG is for YOU!

May the LORD BLESS YOU ALL for your unselfish service!

And so the journey Begins...

2009-01-16T17:09:00.000-08:00

And so the Journey begins from Heavenly Home, to Earthly Home and then to the Service of the Lord...

What a wonderful and glorious experience to share a child with the Lord! Mixed, but good, emotions. I will be forever grateful for the refinement of Andrew as he learns to become a representative of Christ. What an awesome and great privilege and what more could a mother truly wish for.

Whirlwind

2008-12-07T19:04:00.000-08:00

Two days after mission call and there is a pile of "STUFF" and papers everywhere. White shirts...Check. Passport...Filled out, photos done and off to the post office tomorrow morning. Just the beginning...but I know the lord provides a way.

And...The Envelope Please...

2008-12-04T23:34:00.000-08:00

The Call to Serve...

Elder Andrew James Andersen

Germany Munich/Austria Mission
Report: January 14th 2009
Provo, Utah Missionary Training Center

The envelope Please....