Colter's New Address:

Elder Colter Anderson

Altepost Str. 10

87600 Kaufbeuren

Germany

Excerpt from last email:

.... We are building Lebekuchen houses (I think the translation is gingerbread house, but Elder H. says gingerbread is something else...) for the families that are inviting us over for the 24th and 25th. FROM SCRATCH. We got the ingredients and we got the batter all ready. We just need to wait for it to settle for a couple weeks, then we can make them. I'm excited.

Here is an excerpt from Colter's first email from Kaufbeuren. We found out that our good friend Rick Chapman served in Colter's mission many years ago. His first area was Kaufbeuren and his second area was Erlangen!

Well, Kaufbeuren is awesome. I love it already. The dialect is not THAT tough, so that's a relief. also, the area is HUGE!!! from one end to the other it's 70km and then 50km the other way! It is also gorgeous. Kaufbeuren isn't THAT big but there are many many dorfs (towns) that we visit and work in too. Also, we had a baptism on my second day there. It was really cool. His wife is a member, but has been slightly inactive, and her sister and their family are members too, but also less active. His wife is a professioinal Opera singer, and she performed at the baptism. It was awesome. She's fluent in Spanish, German, English, and Russian! She's awesome. The branch is super awesome. We already have eating appointments for the 24th and 25 of Dec. I'm so excited for Christmas here. 1, because Christmas is basically 3 days long. haha. 24 is the main one, and 25 and 26 are still holidays. oh yeah, before i forget, my address is;

Elder Colter Anderson
Altepost Str. 10
87600 Kaufbeuren
Germany

Everyone moves much slower here than in Erlangen. I like it. The countryside is beautiful too. On the drive to a thanksgiving eating appointment yesterday, I saw the alps for the first time on my mission! it's so pretty! They are very similar to the mountains in Utah, the different is, Everything up to it is all green. Oh yeah, i think i told you, but Kaufbeuren is a car area, due to its size. Also, Elder H. isn't allowed to drive, cause he scratched it too many times. haha. Also, we found out today that in order to get a German Drivers liscence, i have to take a theory test, AND a practical test...so dumb. But, i'm still allowed to drive on my CA one for another 3 months. So we'll see. anyway... Next Pday we are going to go to Fussen and Neuschwanstein Schloss! The Castle that the one in Disneyland is based off of. I'm so stoked. Well. I'm doing great and i can't wait to here from you again. It sounds like everyone is doing awesome! Bis nächste Woche!
Immer euer Missionare,
Colter

Colter's being transferred!

Colter has been very busy teaching in Erlangen and has been sending very short emails and no photos! But we received a tape last week that he had made during the month of October. He sounds really great and is settling into the German and missionary life. We got a huge surprise yesterday when we returned from church and found a message on our answering machine from Germany! At first we were worried that something was wrong, but it was just a member of the bishopric in Erlangen informing us that Colter was well. He told us that Colter had received a transfer and would be leaving their area. He wanted us to know what a fine man Colter was and that he had spoken in Church and given his testimony. It was so great to get that connection! Today Colter's email confirmed his transfer. Here's a quote:

"... yes I am getting transfered. To Kaufbeuren! It's DEEP Bayern so basically i won't be able to understand anybody. BUT it's close to the alps and it's a car area. which is awesome cause it's winter. also, Neuschwanstein Castle is in my area! so i get to see that on a P day or something. It's going to be sad leaving Erlangen, but i know Iäll have fun in Kaufbeuren too. My new companion is name Elder Hebben. I know him cause he was the Mission Secretary when i came in as a Greeny. He is also German, so that's cool. Elder Achtmann is staying here. which means he'll probably ''die'' here(end his mission) cause after this transfer he only has one more. That means he will have been in Erlangen for 6 transfers or 9 months! That's crazy. But anyway, That means you can send it straight here to Erlangen. Besides that...i don't really need anything. I'm doing fine on clothes
I really sorry i haven't been that good at pictures. I'm taking a bunch...but i just haven't sent them. I have even printed out some! I'm just lazy. Well, not really mostly busy. But i'll do better. um... i think that's it! I'm really excited for this Christmas! a german christmas!!!! i'm stoked. anyway bye til next week!"

We'll post his address as soon as we get it next week, so you can send him a Christmas Card!

Email from Oct. 19th

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY [Dad & Mitchell]!!! I´m sad I can't be there... But i'm sure it'll be great. This week was pretty cool. Around Thursday and Friday. We did a LOT of finding. We worked so hard trying to find an investigator with no luck. Elder _____ was getting kind of discouraged. I wasn't really, cause...idk. I don't get stress out much. but anyway. Yesterday, our hard work paid off. We were blessed with 4 investigators! It was awesome. We also got to talk to a lot of really interesting people. We doored a dorm, and we got let in by this one guy. His name was Ali and was awesome. He was wearing the Muslim garb and had an awesome beard. I'd say he's probably around 22. We had a great meeting with him, but he wasn't interested in meeting again. Which was too bad. That was on Friday. Sunday, we doored the same building and we got let in by a Hindu guy from India. The meeting was in English, and we had a great meeting with him too. I learned a ton about Hinduism and their way of looking at things. He was really intelligent. He's studying some crazy type of engineering, so he's probably one of these crazy smart guys. Then we had a meeting with 2 girls from Kenya and a German physicist. At the same time. Language was weird. It was about 3/4 in english 1/5 in German, and the rest in Luo, an african language. haha. They became investigators, so it was really awesome. We had our appointment with ____. A really awesome member that i talk about in my tape. btw, the tape is close to being done. It will have a total of 20 min on it, and i'm pretty close to being done, so i'll probably send it next week or something. German is coming along pretty well. The last 2 weeks especially. I can probably hold a conversation with someone, if they annunciate clearly. That's one great thing about O., is that he enunciates. he also has perfect english so that's good too. Some not so great news, is that we had to drop _____, cause she wants time to ''digest'' or something. So that was too bad. But Frau ____ is still going strong. We'll probably try to set a baptismal date this next week. Which is awesome.
I think that's it. Once again. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Love,
Colter

From email of Oct 5, 2009

Well, yesterday was when transfer calls came. But none came! The other elders didn't get any either. Which is awesome, cause our district is awesome. We get to stay together for another 6 weeks. We are all really stoked about that. Today we went to an American Shop near Fürth. Our bishop is half American, and loves to go to american shops. Basically we just got american soda, peanut butter, american chips, and hot sauce. haha. It was aweosme. It was a bit expensive though, so we didn't get all that much. I can't wait to work near a base. I've heard they have taco bell on the american military bases! Our primary investigators right now are are both making slow, steady progress towards baptism. Our other investigators though are really hard to meet with. 2x a week in an investigator is ideal, but none of ours have time or something. Most we meet every 2 weeks, which is annoying. But, at least we are meeting with them. Nothing is really that new though! I'm doing great and continue to wish everyone a great yeah! Tschus!
Love, Colter

Colter's email Oct 5, Erlangen

Well, this week was pretty good. We definitely taught a lot and are keeping ourselves busy. We have a bunch of investigators..... General Conference was awesome. I watched in English along with most of the Elders (except for the German ones) and it was awesome. We however didn´t get to see the Sunday afternoon session, cause it was at 10-12 last night... It sounds like it was amazing though. I really liked how a big theme for this conference was about love and service. President Monson´s talk on Service was awesome. I also really like President Uchtdorfs on love and Elder Oaks was really cool too on Love and Law of God. Frau Maisel came to the Sunday morning session (at 6 at night). Both of the morning sessions we got to see live, then we saw priesthood and saturday afternoon delayed on sunday morning for us.
Last week it was a district P-day in Nurnberg. haha. It was fun. I took pictures and i´m planning on sending some pictures along with a ´microcassette tape´. And hmmmm. The Best thing this week as far as teaching was a really cool meeting with a less active member. She doesn´t come to church anymore because of some mean things some people in the ward did. But we are going to try and work with her and see if we can get her back to church. The hardest thing was finding enough ward members to come help us teach! All the members that are awesome and always want to help us were busy this week and/or next week. We´ve had to cancel a couple appointments cause we need them to come with us to women appointments. It´s quite frustrating. but hey, such is the life...
Well, i should go, i have an appointment soon with my pillow...haha.

Much Love!
Colter

Quotes from Colter's email of Sep 28

Well, we are in Nürnberg for P-day today. I am in a suit that i bought at a thrift store for €3 and the others are in Lederhosen. haha. um... so yeah. This week was a little rough as far as missionary work went. But it was still fun. A lot of appointments fell through and got postponed. But this next week looks awesome. In the next 3 days we have i think 9 appointments, 7 being joint teaches with members. So it´s going to be awesome.

So some answers to questions: Yes, mitchell can have my martin money. I was wearing glasses in the MTC cause it´s really dry there. I would always put my contacts in when it was time for Gym, but before that i just wore glasses. I wear contacts all day here. My clothes are fine. We have a washer and we hang them up to dry whenever we need clothes. My german is coming i think. it´s still hard to understand people, but i think it´s coming, I´m really hoping that i´m absorbing lots. haha. I do spend some time studying each day. From 10-11. The wheather is great right now. It´s kind of like california where i am. Sometimes it´s warm sometimes not. It rains every couple weeks for a couple days. but yeah, the temperature has really gone down on average since i´ve been here. It´ll probably plumitt soon. haha. Most funny thing... hmmm. In a way it´s kinda of not funny. But we were having a rough day. First, we went to a place were there was supposed to be a house with 4 combacks (people that say come back later) and the missionaries before us put the wrong house number or something cause we couldn´t find it. Then, a bird pooped on Elder Achtmanns bike seat . Then, some guys drove by and asked ´hey, how can we be like you guys´all sarcastic and stuff and Elder Achtmann said, you have to be baptized by... then listed the 5 points of the gospel. It was kinda funny i thought. haha.

Then, most spiritual thing. Probably the lesson yesterday with new investigator we found from Ukraine. He´s a student here. and we just talked about the gospel for 1.5 hours. It was cool.

But yeah, everything is going great! Only 2 more weeks left in this transfer. Who knows if i´ll move or if i stay. Pres. Condie kind of likes to move greenies a lot. But Elder Achtmann has been here a while, so who knows. They might even combine the 2 Erlangen areas. Cause they are getting only 1 new Elder and 4ish are leaving. So 1 area in the mission should be closing this transfer. But yeah, this week is going to be crazy. SO many lessons, which is awesome. It sounds like everything is going well at home! Have a great year in school, and don´t stress TOO much. It´s just high school. haha. There are much bigger things in life. I look forward to hearing back!
Love,
Colter

Quotes from Colter's last email:

Here is a photo we found on the Internet of Erlangen, Germany.   

Colter is now in his first area: Erlangen, Germany!

VERY IMPORTANT - here is his address for writing letters (he loves letters!)

HLT - Mission Elder Anderson

Gerhardt-Hauptmann Str. 15
91058 Erlangen
Germany

Here are emails from his first couple of weeks there:

Well, this is my first email from Germany! german keyboards are weird. The z and the y are switched and it is kinda annoying.ummm... yeah! I am in Erlangen, which is a little north and west of Nurnberg. I am pretty sure it is actually closer to frankfurt than Munich. but yeah! this week was awesome! the people in erlangen speak frankish, or what thez speak in frankfurt (i gave up trzing to switch. z=y and y=z ok). which is closer to high german than most of mz mission which is good. cause high german is what i learned. it is still prettz hard to understand people though. The work is slow and the people arent reallz receptive, but thats ok, its still fun. we´ve taught a few people and talked to a bunch, and it´s reallz cool. My companion is Elder Achtman. He is from Germanz, but his english is reallz good, so that´s good. He is into video games and has been on his mission for a little over 18 months. He also is a convert and is the onlz member of his familz that is a member. He was baptiyed at age 18. But zeah! i´m doing well, and i hope everzone back home is too! good luck with school or whatever.

The church in Erlangen is pretty good! it´s a modestly sized ward, but it has a ton of kids and is very strong. The GML (Gemindemissionsleiter or Ward mission leader) just became the 2nd councilor in the bishopric, which is too bad, because he´s known throughout the mission as being the best GML. There are 2 sets of missionaries just for this ward. Us and the rest of our district, Elders Andersen and Jensen. They are awesome. And no, i don´t think the military base is too nearby. We don´t really feel affects of it. The members are awesome and we sometimes see people. And we have had a couple of ward parties where we were fed. And yes it was really good :)
Haha, you´d probably disappointed, but we eat cold cereal most mornings. haha. most of our meals are on the go or quick things at the apartment. the best thing is a Döner, which is a Turkish invented thing that kinda tastes like a Gyro. It´s awesome. My companion is 21, named Elder Daniel Achtman, and is a german. he´s really cool and we get along fine. He´s into videogames and role playing games (like DnD). So we see eye to eye on a lot of things. He is from a town quite a bit north of us. probably a couple hours drive north of Frankfurt. I don´t exactly remember where though. Ok, cool story this week. We were in Höchstadt, which is a bit north and west of Erlangen, and we saw this guy washing his car. So we went up to talk to him and quickly shared the restoration. Then he shared his experience. He´s a christian, that firmly believes in searching for God, cause he had and experience a couple years ago dealing with that, but he hasn´t found a denomination that he feels is right. haha, could there be a more perfect cantidate?! unfortunately he lives in Mäinz, which is in the Frankfurt mission. But we called the mission office and they sent the referal to the Frankfurt mission. So hopefully something good comes out of it.
The mission President and his wife are awesome, they both play the piano and organ, and President Condie is really good at it. They are both really nice. We had Zone Conference this week, so we got to see them then as well, which was really cool. haha. all i really remember of our first stay was there were a lot of meetings and we were all exhausted.haha. We get around by bike, unless we go to Höchstadt or something. Our area is really large. There´s kind of a river, and our area is the West side and the other elders is the east side. our area also extend really far, which is cool cause it´s rural farms. There are also these GIANT windmills, that i actually would like you to see if you could figure out how big they are. They seem like they must be almost 100 ft tall! But the furthest i´ve been in our area is Neustadt, but our area is amost twice as big as the distance from erlangen to neustadt. The other elder´s area isn´t as large. but they live really close, so we pretty much see them every day we have cell phones, so we meet for lunch a lot. we don´t really have any ongoing service project right now, but we are looking for stuff to do. Ok, so that´s it, i should go soon. I have to write my letter to the president. also, if you want you could add as much or as little to the big letter/the blog as you want. But yeah. I´m doing good! miss you lots and can´t wait for your letters! Love, Colter

Final MTC Photos

This post is out of order because we received these MTC photos after we got the email of Colter's arrival in Germany.

Elder Anderson has arrived!

We received an email from Sister Condie (mission President's wife) with these photos from Colter's first day in Germany at the mission home. He has been assigned to the area of Erlangen, Germany - which is 10 miles north of Nurnberg. Since he was worried about the southern and Austrian dialects, it is probably a good place to begin with his MTC German. It is a university town of about 100,000 people. He will email us his address next Monday and we will post that. Here is a nice quote from Sister Condie:

We are thrilled that he is here and are very impressed with his preparation and enthusiasm. He will be a great missionary. Thank you for all you have done to help him become the fine young man he is today. We will do all we can to help him grow as a missionary and have a successful mission. If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. May the Lord bless you and your family at this wonderful time of missionary service.

He is on his way!!

Colter called from the Salt Lake City airport this morning. He sounded really good and happy. We got to visit for about 40 minutes before he left. It seemed a lot shorter than that. He will have a lay over in Atlanta and arrive in Munich tomorrow morning. The best way to reach him until we know his new area address is email. He'll pick emails up next monday. His first few days are probably going to be challenging, so everyone please email him words of encouragement!: colter.d.anderson@myldsmail.net.

Colter's final MTC email

Well we got our flight plans last week. It says we don't switch planes ever. But i'm not sure if we are chilling in Atlanta for a while. Hopefully...15:20 on a plane in a suit is a little too much for my taste. haha. I got a phone card, so i should be calling in the SLC airport. probably around 7:45 my time. We leave the MTC at around 5:30 and our flight is at 8:30, so yeah, that's probably a bad time for you, especially since it's the beginning of school. But hopefully I can reach you! um...what else. Our teacher Sis. Jones last day was yesterday, so we got to see all of her photo albums. We are so pumped to go! And Bro. Sorber got back from Germany yesterday and starts teaching again today. Elder Kunzler and I actually got to see him in the temple! Which was really cool. 4 of us tried out with Prayer of the Children for the fireside on sunday. Unfortnately, we didn't realize that they plan these like, a month in advance. So most likely we won't get to do it, even though she liked it a lot. Oh well...

I hope everything is going good at home and that people aren't stressing too much about school. I hope emma got the letter i sent her. I think i'll write a couple to madi and mitch today. Well, i won't get to email you guys for a while. P-day in my mission is monday, so i won't get one for about 11 days. But i'll be able to talk about the first week in the field!!! And all about my trainer and about my first area. I'm so excited! anyway. Hmmm. I haven't seen Nathan yet. Which is crazy. You'd think i'd have seen him! it's been over 2 weeks! oh well, i got to see matt potter a couple of times and David Bentz a few. I'm really glad too. Matt came in yesterday, and i really wanted to see him. I heard that Derek got his call. Atlanta Georgia English speaking. haha. I'm not sure he's all THAT thrilled, but i'm sure he'll love it. Make sure to tell people i'm no longer in the MTC on the blog/facebook. I'll send you my address in my new area. I've heard that letters take about 2-2.5 weeks to get to Germany, so just keep that in mind. Cause i don't want to have been transfered and then a letter get's to the apartment in my old area. But i should be in my first area for at least 2 cycles (12 weeks) so you won't have to worry about that for a while. I hope i get called to Vienna first. That would be awesome. A teacher for a different district talked to us about Munich/Austria mission, and he said that there are a bunch of dialects that take a bit to get used to. That's the ONLY thing i'm jealous about. The Hamburg missionaries especially. Hamburg has the best german, and i'm sure there are very few dialects in that mission. Or in Frankfurt and Berlin for that matter. I'm just glad i'm not going to Switzerland for that reason. I heard that it's not even German there. haha. But, we in Munich/Switzerland have the prettiest missions in the world, so i guess it's ok. :)

OH YEAH. Richard G. Scott spoke on tuesday! He was awesome. And we had a really spiritually district meeting about it afterward. Well, i don't have much time left, so i'll get off now. But know that I love you all and that you are in my prayers. Good Luck with School! Especially Emma. You have a BEAST of a schedule. But you can do it. I did it didn't I? and you are just as strong if not stronger that i. Ich liebe alle sie, und ich hoffe, dass sie eine gute zwei Jahre haben. Und wissen Sie, dass I ok sein werde, und ich werde meinen besten Arbeiten tun. I weiss dass mein Erloeser lebt, der alle uns liebt. Auf Wiedersehen!!!! Colter

Our best translation for the German part:

"I love you all and I hope that you'll have a good two years. And know that I will be OK and I will do my best work. I know that my Redeemer lives and loves us all. Good-bye!"

2 weeks left!

Colter only has 2 more weeks in the MTC!! He leaves for Germany on the 31st and gets to phone us from the airport!  We are really excited for that - even though school starts on that day also.  He has loved the MTC, but seems anxious to get on with it!  Here are quote from his recent email:

We got new missionaires yesterday. 13! Which is great cause we only had 9 the first couple days. They are all awesome, and most of them are about 6'1" so Volleyball should be fun again! 

I haven't seen Nathan yet :( But i have seen a couple people from BYU. I got to host the new missionaries yesterday, so that was fun, but while i was doing it, one of my friends (David Bentz) arrived and i didn't know he was coming yesterday! I only got to say hi though. and i havn't seen him again, but i probably will on sunday. Thanks so much for the CD player and Chess set. I actually haven't tried the CD player yet, cause there is a boom box that has been passed down from district to district, so we have that in our room. I should open mine and try it out though. The chess set is awesome. We all love it! Elder Webber even thought about writing you a thank you note! haha. I got a letter from Grandma last week, She said she was doing fine and i wrote her. It was nice to hear from her. MENSCH! I'm so stoked to go!!! these next 2.5 weeks are going to go so slow... oh well, we definitely need it. Our teacher (Bro. Sorber) left for Germany today so we won't see him again until right before we leave. Which is sad. We all love him. Luckily we still have out other teacher, Sis. Jones, and the subs are all great i'm sure. hmmm... what else. Not much! My comp and I are doing great. Being ZLs is a lot more stressful, but i guess it's fun.

Love,
Colter

Colter's email address

Remember Colter loves to get emails from everyone! His address is:

colter.d.anderson@myldsmail.net

Quotes from Colter's last email:

... My alarm is waking me up fine. I've only over slept once, by like 4 min. And that was cause instead of snoozing my alarm, i reset the actual TIME instead of the ALARM. :P
Yeah! Morning Devotionals are awesome. Every morning before breakfast, between 7 and 8:15, we get personal study. I have started a scripture journal, and it's awesome. I know it's scheduled into my day, so it's easier for me, but i really encourage all of you to. even just a couple scriptures at breakfast. Maybe the night before you can even print them out and put them on the table for the kids. It really starts off the day right.
The older missionaires are leaving on Monday, which will make my district the oldest at the MTC. Which is really weird. We don't really feel prepared! But we'll do our best. For 2 days, the German zone will only be 9 people! But then we'll have 14 new missionaries on Wed, which is cool. July is over, and so we SHOULD be getting a General Authority soon. One of the Branch Pres alluded to someone that Pres Uchdorf will speak before the Middle group leaves, so hopefully that will include us too! That would be awesome!
I guess i'll send some pictures home soon. I'll make sure to send a picture of my nametag. I'll could tell you what it says now too. Hmmm. I think i will: Elder Anderson
                 Kirche Jesu Christi 
                 der Heiligen der Letzten Tage
They use Genitive 3 times! haha.

German is going pretty well. I can teach the first lesson and probably stumble through the second and can carry on a conversation pretty well. It's really fun, i'm so excited to become fluent! I don't know what else to say!

QUOTES!

Emma & Sally have decided to include quotes from Colter's letters and emails - so that you can "hear his voice".  We'll choose the best ones in reverse chronological order!:

(July 30) Wow, yeah it's crazy i've already been here a month! I doesn't really feel like it. I feel like my german is coming along pretty well. My comp and i taught our first lesson in German to our teacher, Sis. Jones. It was cool and very hard. So now we are going to be doing even MORE in german, which seems impossible.

I have seen friends here. I see Seth kind of a lot. His schedule just works out with mine. We have gym together some days. I see people from BYU a lot too. Nathan probably comes next week, or he's already here and i just haven't seen him. We haven't had any visits from General Authorites. Apparantly, July is there month off. So we might get one on sunday!!! We have gotten a few emeritus 70s though. we also go the guy who wrote "other side of heaven" that was cool. For excercise, i play volleyball mostly. But sometimes soccer and every week we have "sandlot tuesday" which is softball as a zone. This week i hit 3 triples and hit it the farthest! :)

The MTC is so cool. My teachers are awesome, everyone is nice, i'm learning a ton, and i've even started a scripture journal. I'm going to go through the Topical Guide and study stuff i think sounds interesting. Right now i'm doing the Abrahamic Covenant, which is really facinating. Also, my comp and I have finished the gospels and are working our way through Acts. We read about 6-7 chapters a day together. My district is awesome, and i hope that i can work with at least a couple of them in the field. (my comp is the only one in our district going to Switzerland). I'm only district leader for a couple more days, i'm kinda glad, it's been an honor, but i just want to be a missionary, sure and simple. However, there's a 1 in 3 chance i'll be made zone leader on sunday, cause there's only 3 companionships in my transfer. Anyway, I should go, but i'll do my best to write a good letter today. We don't get much time on P-days, with laundry and everything. And naps are really important, I'm always exhausted by thursday, so i take a nap! haha. Have a great week, i know I will. and btw, my diet is faltering a bit. I didn't lose ANY weight the like, week i ate only salads. so i just try to eat only as much as I am hungry. Anyway, i'm going now. Thanks for Danny's address. He's been in my prayers.

(July 23)  We got a new district on Wed. We have 2 sisters and 1 elder. Which is weird for him. He is a solo, which means they have special rules. He's essencially part of another companionship in the Zone. Also, one of the sisters is from Armenia! She prayed yesterday in Armenian. It was so cool.

(July 16)  Here I am doing laundry again! I went to the temple again today and did another endownment session. There isn't that much to report on, I love it here, but it's very routine. I'm getting along with my companion fine, and my district is awesome as well. German is coming along pretty well. we are still reviewing grammar i already know, but it's nice to relearn it. The best thing is just practice, which we do a lot of. My comp and i are actually teaching our first lesson in German to a progressive investigator, which is exciting and scary. Probably the highlight of the week was when we went to the call center. We got some incoming calls and a woman from NY, NY called. She wanted a free bible, cause she recently moved and realized she didn't have a bible in her house. So i sent it to her WITH the missionaires. It was awesome, and she was really nice too and rememberd my name throughout the entire phone conversation. It was great.

(July 9)  This first week was soooo cool. My district is awesome, and so is my companion. Elder Kunzler. He's from Idaho Falls, Idaho. The rest of my district I think I also told you about in my letter on my first day. Classes are awesome and my teachers are amazing. Brother  Sorber is so funny and amazing. He went to Frankfort on his mission and got back 3 years ago. Equally as awesome is my other teacher, Sis Jones. She also went to Frankfort and is really sincere and truly loves us for what we are doing. 

i guess i'll give you an overall of my day. Wake up at 6 so i can be ready by 7, study til 8:15, eat, study til 1 (or have a teacher), eat, study til 6 (or have teacher or practicing teaching "investigators"), eat, study til 9 (or have a teacher). There's LOTS of self directed time. We pretty much spend more time in our classroom then in our rooms. That includes time sleeping. I was so exhausted today, that during personal time (oh, today is P-day) that i crashed and took a 2 hour nap.

One Month in the MTC

Colter's had a great first month in the MTC!  His letters and emails are full of enthusiasm and positive thoughts.  These are his roomates:  His comp, Elder Kunzler from Idaho Falls, Elder Kohl from Indiana, and Elder Foremaster from Utah. Elder Kunzler is going to Switzerland, and the other two are going to Munich with Colter.    He loves his teachers - Brother Sorver and Sister Jones. 

Colter seems to be feeling pretty good about his German progress.  He feels like he is learning a ton.  He's also started a scripture journal.  For the past month he has been district leader.  Life at the MTC is amazing, but exhausting, so he likes to take naps on P-day.  He put himself on a diet for a while - saving his calories for German pastries!

We love hearing from him.  He really sounds great and happy.

First Week at the MTC

Hi All! I'm at the MTC and just finished my first week. Thanks to all of you that wrote me! Oh wait, that's NOBODY! :P jk...kinda. I'd love to hear from everyone!My address is posted above if you'd like to know more about it. Please write! Hope everyone is well!

Colter

(Update posted by Emma)

Everyone should write Colter!! You can email using this address: colter.d.anderson@myldsmail.net.

He only picks up email once a week.

He will respond with a letter.

Also: a fast, free way to get a letter to Colter is to go to DearElder.com and click on Select a Mission and choose the top choice: "Provo MTC". Then click on Write a Letter and write it and send it. I think they print it out at the MTC and deliver it to him that day or the next.

To the MTC

Last Wednesday, our family dropped off Elder Colter Anderson at the MTC in Provo, Utah.  We can't believe he's already gone!  Before dropping him off, we took pictures of him with us in front of the Provo Temple, which is across the street from the MTC.  Here are some pictures from that morning:

After taking many pictures, we drove down the street to the MTC.  It used to be that families would walk into the MTC with the missionaries, and there would be talks and a dramatic farewell where everyone would sing "God Be With You Till We Meet Again", and then families would leave through one door and missionaries would leave through another.  Now, because of the swine flu thing (and apparently they decided to save everyone the torture of the melodramatic goodbyes in the MTC) we drove onto the grounds and pulled up to the sidewalk in front of a side entrance, where there were MTC missionaries that greeted us and helped to get his luggage.  We said our final goodbyes there.  As Colter turned to walk into the building, Mom exclaimed, "Okay, just one more picture!"  Colter was obviously exasperated with all the pictures, but allowed her to take one before turning and entering eagerly into the MTC.  Even though he was reluctant to take it, we think that it's one of the best pictures we took:

He just looks so happy to be there! We could tell that he was excited to be starting his mission, and didn't want to be anywhere else.  Even though we already miss him a ton, that's exactly where we want him to be, too.

One last thing.  If you would like your letters to reach Colter faster, be sure to add his MTC Mailbox Number under his name in the address he gave on the last post.  Otherwise the address is the same. His Mailbox Number is:  132-0831

MTC address and mission home

These addresses will be used to reach me if you want to write me. Soon I'll have an email that you can also write me at. :)

MTC address (use until early september)

Elder Colter David Anderson

Germany Munich/Austria Mission

MTC box 132-0831

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604

Mission home (probably easiest way anytime after september, this is the mission home base and their forward the mail to me wherever i am)

Elder Colter David Anderson

Germany Munich/Austria Mission

Lommel Strasse 7

81479 München

Germany

(postage $0.94 i think)

-Colter

P.S. This is probably my last personal post, all subsequent posts will be by my sister Emma :-)

Have a great 2 years without me :(

Hopefully this will work :P

Well, I'm going to give this a try. Well, at least SOMEONE is. I want to be able to post pictures and emails on this site so that people will be updated on my life as a missionary. I got a camera that I am taking with my and will try to send pictures home when I can. I will also be emailing home (hopefully) every week. I'll probably send one to my parents, one to people who send my personal emails (hint hint), and one general one that I will have someone (Emma or Chelsea or  parentals or SOMEONE) post on this blog. I have no idea how to blog or whatever so this is kind of a shot in the dark, haha. But hopefully this or Facebook or both will work out and people can stay in touch :)

Thanks! and please write!

Colter