When the Going gets Tough, Elder Annen Gets Tired

Family!!!!!!! I am so happy that I finally get to write you and have a little longer then 30 minutes to write all of you.. What can I say about this week!?!?!?!?! Let's just say its been really good and really hard...

The good... I have never prayed more in my life then I have this past week, every second I seem to be asking for the gift of tongues, the gift of understanding, the gift of just help and encouragement. If I could ask one thing of you all, I would ask that you would pray for me, this week has really been tough and not sure what to do.. Well back to the good, our investigator, Siela, is so great. She has a great desire to change and wants to be baptized so badly. I don`t really know what to tell you about her other than I am really excited for her and love seeing the change within herself. I`ll tell you a little bit about her.. She is 50 something years old, smokes, drinks everyday, has stomach cancer, and has really had a tough life. I`ve realized lately, how great God`s love is for everyone. He wants to hear from us to badly, and loves us incredibly. I stand all amazed. I can't really think of any other words to use to describe my feelings.

This week there was a huge festival in Konstanz, where 55,000 people from all around come, to watch fireworks, dance, hangout and have a great time. I didn't get to go to it, but I heard the crazy cannon sounds of fireworks going off all night, I hope one day I can go back to this awesome festival! Well I am not sure what else to say, but I hope to hear from you all, whether by email or letter, I love to hear from you......


I love you all,

Elder Annen

My feet hurt...

This Was Not The Language They Taught Me In The MTC

Family!!!! Oh I am soooooo happy to finally have some time to write you!

Let me tell you, so much has happened, soo many miracles I have seen everyday I have been here, I know that Heavenly Father is with us every step of the way in missionary work.... First off I am serving in an area called Kreuzlingen! Which is an awesome area, we live in Germany, but everyday we literally walk into Switzerland then ride trains to everyplace, investigators homes, members and so on... My Comp is Elder Strauss from Germany and he is pretty ripped to the bone, not going to lie. Everyday he gets up at 5 to work out and stay fit, one day I will be as big as him, but probably not:) Well I am still quite limited on time so here goes a quick update..

In the past week we have commited two investigators to be baptized and they said yes!!!!!!!!!! So that is really awesome:) 

One miracle happened to me as I was riding the train from Munich to Kreuzlingen... So I was with some elders that had been out for almost 2 years, and we all started to talking to this young lady, Kortina, she was 22 and just going home from work. We started to talk to her and she was really interested with our beliefs, one elder asked if any of us had an I am a Mormon card, all the missionaries said no, but I knew I had one. So I went into the back of the train to get the cards. When I went back, I remembered that I had shipped the bag with all my cards and realized I didn't have any cards.. So I prayed with all my heart in the most simple and powerful prayer I have ever said.. I remember distinctly not being in control of myself, as my arm reached into my coat, and pulled out an I am a Mormon card.... Where had it come from? I don't honestly know... But Heavenly Father put it there... I know it. I had never put a card in my coat. I have such a testimony that God is a God of miracles. Why wouldn't he be? He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.. I love Him with all my heart. I am so grateful to Him.

 
Well it was fast Sunday and guess who had to bear testimony in aweful to German??? Any Guesses? Jeremy? Ashley? Jessica? Mom? Dad? No Guesses?!?!?!?!!? Fine, Ill tell you, I did! It was said with all my heart, but I don't know what I said..

Love you All,

Elder Annen

Elder Hunter Annen with President and Sister Kohler
in the mission home in Munich, Germany

Not Enough Time To Say Hello, Goodbye, I'm Late, I'm Late, I'm Late!

Dear Family,

I love you! I love you! I wish I had time, to say everything that has happened to me, and all the spiritual moments this week but I dont have time....

I have learned so much this week but if there is one thing worth sharing its love...... The love I have for all of you, and the love Heavenly Father has each one of us! I love you Ashley, I love you Jeremy, I love you Jessica, I love you Mom, and I love you Dad! I honestly truly love and miss every single one of you. I pray for you all often... If I could challenge you to do one things this next week, I would ask and plead with you, to share greater love for one another:) If someone was done something to offend you, forgive them.. Some of Jesus's last words were "forgive them, for they know not what they do." He showed such great love as people showed Him such great hatred... Please forgive one another, and help each other out, for sometimes we say things we dont mean to say, because we know not what we do to others... I love you and want you to know that I constantly worry and think of you all! 

With a Heart full of Love,
Elder Annen

I have a random side note that I want to include but dont know where to put it, to my brother-in-law. I am happy to have Zavier join our family, I really appreciate getting to know him before I left. Thank you Zavier for being such a great friend, and spikeball pal!
Again I love you all:)

Zwei Woche Left!

Dear Family,

Wow, this week has been the same yet as unique as every week! I don't know exactly what that means, but really. Not much happens here, yet everything happens, but I do not have enough time to write it all out or explain it to y'all. Well these past 7 days have been a lot of work and plenty of fun! The Sisters in my district decorated our classroom like Christmas, hanging a paper tree and ornaments on the wall, a handshake mistletoe, and giving all the Elders in our district candy/food! It made my day and seemed like so much fun to celebrate the 4th of July last week, and Christmas this week! Christmas and in the middle of July! Look Kay! An indoor blizzard!:) We sang Christmas hymns all day and really had a great time. Let's see what else happened this week? Easter bunny perhaps?!? Haha!

We taught several lessons and I am starting to understand more, and speak a little more in our lessons so I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for that! This week Elder Hunt and I taught the Plan of Salvation to Robert. The lesson went sooo well, we helped him with his questions, taught him, and when we had some extra time we told some jokes and left. It was the greatest lesson we have ever taught...... We also taught Dani, about the Restoration of the Gospel along with answering some of his questions. We are planning on asking him to be baptised next time so I am really excited, because I think he is ready....German is coming along, but I am a little nervous to get out into that field and realized "this isn't the language that taught me in the MTC!" I really am excited to leave in two weeks and we will have one more group of English speaking missionaries. This group plus us, German speakers, will make about 90 missionaries, which is a huge number here in the England MTC! That's almost double our first group! So now our meal times are switched around and there are two lunches... You guys probably don't care, but over here its a huge deal and our only bit of drama.. haha!

This week we had someone from the quorum of the 70 come and talk to us, President Donaldson (?) Donaldsen(?)DonaldDuck(?) Anyways, he gave an amazing talk to all of us on personal prayer, and more specifically personal revelation. His words confirmed in my mind that missionary work is only possible through personal revelation. We cannot function, work, teach unless we have the Spirit... This doesn't only apply to us missionaries... All of you can recieve it for yourselves, why not try it? In the scriptures, specifically the Book of Mormon, it talks about faith being as a seed, and to experiment upon the words. The scripture doesn't say we have to try it, but I am urging you to all try this experiment. Why not? What is there to lose? A few minutes on bended knee, then be blessed with an anwser, a feeling or a direction to move forward! Ich weiß dass wenn sie beten und lesen in die Schriften können sie ein Antwort empfangen! I'm sure my spelling and German grammar is awful, but one day, I might understand all the German language:) We also watched a devotional by Neil A. Anderson. He talked about how things unseen by the world are eternal... I found that to be an interesting phrase... People may say well, Jesus Christ never came to Earth, Joseph Smith may not have seen the First Vision, but that's what the world says. They don't see as we see. For the way we see is not through seeing at all. We see through all of our senses, we feel the Holy Ghost, we hear the words of Truth, we can feast on the word of Christ and so on. We see, becasue we have felt. Faith is something hoped for, but not seen. Faith is something felt and known but not seen.

Anyways, I cannot remember if I told all of you last week, but my good friend Brandon Whitehead was in the England MTC and today he left for the real world experience:) Also I met an elder..... Elder Hanson from Zürich, Switzerland, that said he knows Wendy! So that was really fun to talk to him and get to know him better.... I have talked to several return missionaries and I keep thinking, that I will be in Switzerland for most, if not all of my mission, but we'll see^^ I sure hope I get to go there and serve where our family is from... Well I wish I had more to say or report, but I don't. Just know I miss you all dearly...

I love you all and wish you the best! I pray for all of you, Jessica, Jeremy, Ashley, Mom and Dad, I love you and hope to hear from you soon.

Love,
Elder Annen

Spreche Ich Deutsch?

Hey Family!

Well there have been some stuff happening this week... So on this past week we were studying in the classroom and all of a sudden the room started to shake and we were all like what do we do? Is this an earthquake? The second coming? Ahhhhhhhh! So we hid under our desks and waited.... The ground was shaking.. Shaking a lot and I didnt know what to do, one person yelled that we should all get out and run so with the whole building shaking we ran outside... Fire trucks and ambulances had arrived and there was mas chaos......

Then I woke up^^ haha did I scare all of you? I sure hope so and I hope all of you had a wonderful 4th of July! I know I sure did! My district went outside in the morning and said the pledge of allegiance, drew pictures of America and the U.S. flag on the boards, sang patriotic songs and had a blast! I wish we could have shot off some fireworks or something, but the British don't like the 4th of July...I wonder why? Well how was Kathy's house? I hope that was a lot of fun going to the golf course and watching them go off! Well I should tell about a spiritual experience because this week I have been so blessed with feeling the spirit and all the blessings that have come with being a missionary.

But I'll tell of you guys that story later because I want to congratulate Ashley on getting engaged and I am so excited for you... I wish I could be there for the marriage but for some reason I have to stay here... Well I am excited for you Ashley! Then it was Dad's birthday so happy birthday to you! I hope you dont start growing some grey hair or anything^^ hehe silly me! Anyways I wish I could be there for all of these wonderful events going on. I love all of you and miss you all terribly......

This week we got to watch some of the greatest devotionals, my favorite was from Richard G. Scott and how important prayer is. He said, " you cannot rush an effective pray." I thought about that and how true it really is.. Whats the point of saying a quick prayer? Do you say a quick prayer, hoping to get a quick answer? Why do we do it? I would challenge all of you to put more time into our prayers. Think about what we are really grateful for, ask for what we really need, and pray like this phone call to Heavenly Father is the last call or communication you can have with anyone ever again. He is everywhere and can do anything. Without Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, I would be nothing, but because of Them, I can do anything, even serve this mission. I pour out my mind, my thoughts, my feelings, to Them and I know They live and care for us. I am indebt to Them forever.. Anyways, hopefully all of you can try to have a mighty prayer a week and really communicate with Heavenly Father...

I love you all!

I miss you,
Elder Annen

Pippip and Cherrio!!

Lieber meine Familie,

Another week has gone by and.......none of you have written me.... I am a little disappointed in y'all and for that I am going to move to Europe and not come home for two years.... maybe I'll learn some German, visit Switzerland, Germany, and Austria and Italy without all of you.... Just kidding, but seriously I can't wait to get out there in the real mission field. The missionaries that were here for two weeks (going to missions in England) left this morning and now the MTC is empty as can be... only 20 missionaries here... It is so strange and well kinda sad.

Today we got to visit some Church sites and wow:) I cannot believe how large of a difference England made to the church, so much happened, Heber C. Kimball was so inspired and I wil try to explain everything that I learned but chances are my words will get messed up and none of you will understand what I am trying to say... I would describe myself as being like Nephi being weak in writing and speech. Anyways, we first went to the town square in Preston, where there was this huge obelisk in the center. People would gather there to talk and buy some random food or something. The missionaries that went there, didn't have money to rent a place to preach/teach so they went to the town square and taught people who would listen to them. I am trying to remember who the missionary was, but the first time they preached, after they were done 8 people came up to them and asked to be baptised. There were stories of whole congregations, that were following a minister and all of a sudden the whole congregations would want to be baptised and the preacher would be so angry. I understand why, some people would be anger at the mormons, but it brought so much good:) We also got to visit the house where Gordon B. Hinckley was a missionary, and received the famous letter from his father, "Forget yourself and go to work." It was really a neat tour. There is so much more I could tell you but I don't have time.

This week my testimony has grown so much and I have never felt the spirit so constantly in my life.. I wake up and the spirit is there, I go to class and it's there, I eat food it's there. I feel the Spirit here all the time and I know that I am blessed incredibly. I have gained an appreciation for missionary work in a talk given by David A. Bednar on Christmas day a few years ago, where he said things like, this mission has nothing to do with you.... Learning a language or not has nothing to do with you.. Who cares where about the culture it has nothing to do with you... This mission is where missionaries learn to turn themselves over to Jesus Christ and go to work. This work has nothing to do with me, but I only hope to be worthy to do as He would have done. I love you all! Talk to all of you next week.

Love,
Always and forever,
Elder Annen

 We got to visit this house where Gordon B. Hinckley was a missionary, and received the famous letter from his father, "Forget yourself and go to work." 

Let's Go! Go! Move! Move!

Hallo Mein Familie!

It's been crazy since I last saw you guys, I now understand why Ashley and Jeremy would say, "So much has happened, and I don't know where to begin!" Jeremy told me to always write a quick summary then, go into detail an something if I have time.....

So quick summary of my week in 5 sentences. Loooooooooooooooooonnnnnnng flight, where I met I nice older lady, who I got to talk to about the church and why I am serving a mission. I have taught 3 lessons to an investigator in GERMAN, and man that is a tough language to learn. The MTC is very small with only about 50 missionaries, and we are divided up by our language we will speak in the field, and mission we are going to, and put into districts. The food here is amazing, I had always heard the British food was bad, but nein, it been sups nice ha^^ And boy have I missed you all, that in writing this email I am almost brought to tears just thinking about all of you...

Well that's the summary of the week... Any questions?

Learning German has been death! Why did I ever take Spanish when all it did was mess me up in ths foreign language? Anyways, I have been so humbled in this past week. I have never thought myself as being prideful, or overconfident (unless I was pretending just to make others laugh) but wow! I have been so humbled! BOOM shut down! I thought picking up German would be easy, but it has been tough. Everyday we have about 3-4 hours of German language study, with a teacher, or on computers, or personal study, and my brain is fried like an egg! Then we are also planning lessons for investigators, eating, getting 8 hours of sleep, devotionals, ummmm... and so much more..

The Elders that room with me are all awesome people! My companion, Elder Hunt (from Sandy, UT, and went to Alta High School), Elder Killpack, Elder Borelli, and Elder Howarth. Elder Killpack and Howarth are from some random place in Utah, and Elder Borelli is from Italy! They are so fun and we have a great time together. Ummmmm...... Today we got to go through the temple and the Preston Temple is amazing:) I will try to send a picture of it next week. It beautiful here in England, so green, full of shrubbery, trees, flowers, green stuff, ohh and it rains like everyday here!!

Let me tell you about our German role-playing investigator as quickly as I can because I am running out of time, ahhhh! His name is Moritz, and he speaks a little bit of English and requested a Book Of Mormon because he googled "God" and the Church popped up! So he requested a Book of Mormon, and so on our first visit we TRIED to teach him about Heavenly Father and our relationship to him... and that conversation didn't go so well... He asked us if we were like Hercules, and went on and on, in a kinda making fun of way, that was not fun to hear because well He is making fun of us. And also I don't really speak German! So our next lesson with him, we wanted to reteach him about Heavenly Father and that didn't go well either, I didn't understand a word he said, but I knew he had a ton of questions that I didn't know how to answer or understand. Then our third lesson we taught the same lesson again, and it was successful so that was really nice.

If you have any questions to ask me please send me some so I know what to write about in my next letter.....

Well I have to go now, so know that I love and miss you all!

Elder Annen
#icantspeakgerman
#yet
#MTC4Life