Working towards a White Christmas!

                                                                                                            December 18, 2017

Family,

My words in the email can’t express my excitement for the mission work right now, haha especially after I spent all day today editing a Christmas video for Hermana Woodward I just want to get out and work!

Right now, I have a baptismal date with Estevan for the 30th, we are thinking about moving it to the 23, he has everything he needs and is ready, we are going to visit him tomorrow to see what he thinks, 

This past week was not normal, I spent tons of time in the church building, between planning for stake activities cleaning the church and getting ready for Hattian weddings I have been super busy, to boil it all down there was a Hattian that lived in my  sector a while back that moved to the sector of the Hermana’s and he finally go the papers to get married a while back, this past Friday we had the reception and Saturday the baptism, we did lots of prep working helping make it so everything goes good, the wedding at the end was super nice, and the part of the baptism was a little un organized but was great as well. as I showed up to the baptism the Herman’s told me I had to baptism the guy and my mission leader would baptize his wife, haha so I looked for some white pants in the office, found some and then baptized, as I didn’t have any change of clothes I went home a little wet! haha and as I had all my clothes sitting in the bathroom some of the little children had stolen my shoes while I was baptizing, I got all changed then realized my shoes were gone! a few of the members helped me locate my shoes after about 5 minutes of looking. the kids were using them as airplanes.

Other than that, this past week has just been working, lots of heat and contacting, the people aren’t that responsive right now but we are working in many different ways and the Christmas program for this year helps us a lot! we found a family this past week that we are going to visit tomorrow.

I love you all thanks for your support!

merry Christmas!

Elder Anderson

Dreaming of a White Christmas!!!

                                                                                                            December 11, 2017

Sup fam?

Nothing great week in the oven, the elders here in Peña flor are starting to blend in with the Hattians, and I am trying to decide that the smell of cooking meat in the streets is from us cooking or from the people actually cooking meat. haha anyways, nothing like a good dip in the old baptismal fount to cool us off!

This past week we had another baptism, this baptism was for a pioneer baptism in 2 ways, one because she is the first person in her whole family who has been baptized. and she was a product of our new reference system, as I have explained a while back we are the firsts outside of the united states to have a system like this, one of those references I had gotten was Claudia, a 16 year old girl that had been attending church in another sector for some time, as of 2 weeks ago we had a date with her for the 16th but then changed it for the 8th, so this last Friday she got baptized then Sunday confirmed,

Also, this week we kept the contacting going but not a whole ton of results came out of it. we did get a few more people that might have some good potential but nothing too promising. we also moved our baptism date with Estevan for the 30th and also put another date with his little sister for the 30th as well. my hopes are for at the end of this month they will have almost their whole family baptized,

Other than that, not a whole ton has happened, I have been in the office a whole lot today just because Hermana Woodward has me doing some video editing for the Christmas party movie. 

I love you all and thanks for everything you do for me!

Elder Anderson

Sorry looks like I won’t send pics this week, this computer here doesn’t work that great.

P Day with Herman Woodward

                                                                                                                   December 4, 2017

hello everyone!

today will be a little short and crazy, haha to first explain, today was a great people but crazy, we ended up having to go on the other side of Chile, the side closest to Argentina to a hospital, my comp needed to do a few examines,(not going to go into detail why) but it took about 3 hours from my house to the hospital, Hermana Woodward met us there, we spent the whole day in these hospitals working the system trying to get everything done in one day so we didn’t have to come back another day, today for sure was an English day, my comp speaks English so Hermana Woodward just talked to us in English all day, we talked about everything, it was really great to get an inside on the life of president, what he thinks of the mission and life perspective, after talking with Hermana Woodward I realize how much they are really just trying to run the mission exactly how the lord wants it. and really, I get to see the results, this mission truly is being run by the lord. after all the hospital stuff she took us out to eat at McDonalds, first time in my mission eating McDonalds, it was super great! then after that we ended up going with her to pick up her kids from school, it was cool to get to know one of her kids a little bit more. these kids truly sacrifice a lot of us as missionaries as well.

as far as work is going, haha I am loving it! don’t get me wrong last week was a rough week but me and my comp are working, and working, and it is super great, I get along so well with my comp, we became super great friends super-fast, I see a lot of me in him,(haha he is the same height weight and shoe size as me) as well as he teaches the same way as me and loves walking fast, so that’s a super great thing! 

this week we took the fecha with Claudia and put it for the 8th, this Friday, haha first time I have made a fecha even close!  Claudia really is ready for baptism and really has a really bright future, 

with Estevan he has a fecha for the 16th, he is trying to get his life a little bit in order, he has a kid that is going through lots of surgeries and stuff. his son has 2 years old and he has 27.

we are working with a girl named Loura, this week we want to put a fecha meta with her for the 23, she has attended church a ton just not in the past month. 

my classes of English are getting super hard to teach, especially because I am now teaching them alone! hopefully this new Hermana from the states who just started her mission can help me a bit. teaching English is super hard! but about 30 people come to my class. Hermana Woodward was super impressed with this class and is going to start sending me materials so I can teach a little better.

this Christmas we are really focusing on the light the world project, I only got one more Christmas left in the mission, let’s make the best out of it. 

I really appreciate all the love and prays I get from you all. for sure see them in my life. I can see the lord doing his thing in my life every day. and not even in small ways. today we got into some examines that the next opening would have been the 19th of this month, we prayed and the next thing you know a lady come out and says. you know, I feel like I should let you guys get an appointment today, so she moved a few things around to get us in. 

this morning I prayed for a few special chances to help some people, and those chances came to me, I didn’t have to look for them, we got to talk to a security guard about his life, how he just had a kid and in the testing church. he just finished the book of Mormon and wants to know more, sadly he doesn’t even live in my mission, but we found out that there are missionaries visiting him.

I really love the mission, and Christmas, and working on Christmas as a missionary, haha its super-hot outside but nothing like a little sweaty face to get the people to sit down in the shade for a minute and listen to the Lords message,

love you all.

Elder Anderson

Saturday's in the water

                                                                                                                                November 27^, 2017

Hey Everyone,

this past week was a beastly week, haha did really show much in our numbers but honestly we did a lot of good, to start off as of last Monday we did not have a baptismal date with

anyone, on Tuesday we went to visit gravy whom we had previously had a date with for the 25th, we walked into that lesson only having plans to read a chapter of the book of Mormon with her, after reading we got onto the topic of how the holy ghost responds to us, in end she told us about her getting her answer and that she wanted to be baptized this weekend, she put her own baptismal date. I could truly see that she was repented of her past and converted to the gospel. 

 

Wednesday, I thought my first big English class, remember about the Fairia thing? about 30 people showed up to the class, to be honest it is hard to teach ingles, for many reasons, but with practice I am getting good.

we after the baptism on Saturday we had a lesson with Claudia and 16-year-old girl that I talked about last week, she has a date to be baptized on the 16th,

we did have changes I am still her in peñaflor but now with elder Gonzales from Argentina. he has almost the same amount of time as me. I am super excited to see the work we are going to do this change.

love you all keep up the great work!

 

Elder Andy and Blonde Hair

November 20, 2017

Hello family!

What’s up yall?  Here in the mission everything is super chill, haha or should I say hot? haha the sun continues to be super-hot! including it has died my hair blond, today as I was getting my hair cut the lady that was cutting my hair said that it probably won’t ever go back to brown, well I guess we finally have a person in the family that has blond hair, at this point it’s just at the front of my hair and the lower sides, but it is spreading! within the next few months I expect to be blond.

This week with the sector was a pretty difficult week to tell ya the truth, we kept working and looking for people but never ever showed up, we followed the council of president but still nothing, until Saturday, Saturday we did an activity in the fairia, which is basically where everyone sells stuff on the side of the streets like crazy, fruits ect,,, anyways, we ended up putting a stand up there as a district, we offered free juice as well as contacted people and got over 50 people signed up for my English classes, we contacted over 200 people, and gave away 40 liters of juice, it was very effective, after that activity we passed by a reference that Talagante my old sector gave us, is was a 16 year old girl that had been attending church in the Talagante ward for the past month! as well as our retentions kids ages 12 and 27 want to be baptized and Gavy the investigator as of a long time is finally getting her head on straight about getting an answer about baptism, 

Really the lord is blessing us here, I can see that, I don’t really have a whole lot more to say, I hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

 Elder Anderson

#missionaryfuninthesun

                                                                 

                                                                                                          November 13 2017

Sup fam!

Well this past week has been sun and more sun! and sunscreen! haha it has gotten hot here in Chile, and that means I am starting to look like a Latino, (although all the people in the streets still scream hello in my face), this past week has been all about finding people, 

As the past week we tried all types of ways to find people, we tried working smarter than harder and then we worked hard in the ways we thought were smarter, haha ho

nestly we talked to a lot of people this past week, and the sad part is none of them really turned out to be interested, it was just one of those weeks in the mission where you just got to keep the faith going, and just keep looking for people and talking to everyone,

One thing that got a lot better this past week was that we had tons of lessons with members, and they are resulted out super great, our fecha with Gabby is doing great, we did move her baptismal date for the 25, there it should stay firm and she should be baptized on that date.

My thought for the week was on the scripture where it says first seek to obtain my word then you get share it. my scripture study over the past year has been like none other, I for sure thank god for the scriptures and the studies that I have done, I love being able to teach people, it honestly is my favorite thing to do, and I love talking about the doctrine, lots of people here don’t like to believe anything we say until we have scriptural doctrine to back it up. I am at the point where I share something from the book of Mormon and then let the bible back it up. time and time again, really, I love the feeling when the spirit testifies to the people of what is going on, and when the people learn and grow closer to Christ through the words of the holy ghost that come through my companion and me. 

I hope all is going good back at home!

Elder Anderson

#missionaryfuninthesun

                                                                                                            November 13 2017

Sup fam!

Well this past week has been sun and more sun! and sunscreen! haha it has gotten hot here in Chile, and that means I am starting to look like a Latino, (although all the people in the streets still scream hello in my face), this past week has been all about finding people, 

As the past week we tried all types of ways to find people, we tried working smarter than harder and then we worked hard in the ways we thought were smarter, haha honestly we talked to a lot of people this past week, and the sad part is none of them really turned out to be interested, it was just one of those weeks in the mission where you just got to keep the faith going, and just keep looking for people and talking to everyone,

One thing that got a lot better this past week was that we had tons of lessons with members, and they are resulted out super great, our fecha with Gabby is doing great, we did move her baptismal date for the 25, there it should stay firm and she should be baptized on that date.

My thought for the week was on the scripture where it says first seek to obtain my word then you get share it. my scripture study over the past year has been like none other, I for sure thank god for the scriptures and the studies that I have done, I love being able to teach people, it honestly is my favorite thing to do, and I love talking about the doctrine, lots of people here don’t like to believe anything we say until we have scriptural doctrine to back it up. I am at the point where I share something from the book of Mormon and then let the bible back it up. time and time again, really, I love the feeling when the spirit testifies to the people of what is going on, and when the people learn and grow closer to Christ through the words of the holy ghost that come through my companion and me. 

I hope all is going good back at home!

Elder Anderson

The Smartest Guy In The Room!

                                                                                            

                                                                                                                November 6, 2017

Hey Everyone,

This week I have lots of things to say, haha don’t know if I will get all my thoughts down but let’s give her a try!

Last Saturday we had a conference with the elder Christenson of the 70 and elder teixeira of the 70 as well, it was a super short little meeting with them, it was also with the south mission, there was a little over 400 missionaries there, in the conference there were many things that were said in this conference that will outline my email.

First off we talked about talking with everyone, president Woodward ever since I have gotten in the mission has a quote, hablor con todos, or talk with everyone, throughout the week in my personal studies of the new testament I have found myself looking at how Christ teaches and finds people to teach, and I noticed, he never had to look for people, there were always people around him and he made it his work to talk to them, one example is the woman at the water well, Christ was just there trying to get a drink and started teaching her, in the mission we are taught to talk to people about a third object first, like a conversation starter, Christ’s does just that, then he relates what is going on here to what he wants to teach, in this example he says ( those that drink of this water will satisfy their thirst for only a moment, but he that trinket of the living water shall never thirst) how amazing of a way to teach.

Last week I talked about a guy named Jose who we had a great lesson with him, this week we had another lesson with him, but first let me give you a little background on him, Jose is the kind of guy who thinks he is the smartest guy in the room, he studies a ton, he is very smart, through teaching I found that he believe that he can come through the truth by thinking and researching, in part that is somewhat true, but on somewhat, during this lesson we brought a young member who got home from his mission like 1 year ago, as we were there teaching we all were in tune with the spirit and teaching what we needed to be, the idea was that we were trying to get him to pray, to pray and ask god if these things were true, time and time again he has said ( these Mormons have another idea, I think they are close) but he would never ask god if it was true, which brings out my other point I learned from the conference, it doesn’t matter who is the smartest guy in the room, but the smartest guy isn’t the guy who studies a ton, it’s the guy who is smart enough to know that god is smarter, and to ask god. as I pondered upon these words I thought about how really we can study until we drop, we can earn doctors degrees and spend years studying bible, heck we can spend more than a lifetime studying the life of Jesus Christ, but if we aren’t humble enough to get off our high horse and kneel down and pray and ask god if these things are true, we can never know... no matter how much we study, the holy ghost is an essential part in our conversion, it is impossible to know of the truths of the gospel without the confirmation of the holy ghost.

This past week as part of the challenge of president we put our motors in gear and talked to everyone and tried our best to find new people, and we did, but one thing I learned about talking to everyone is explained good in Mathew chapter 14, where Christ walks on water, but in this part my mind focused a lot of what peter did, about his faith, peter had such faith to first step off the boat, but he needed Christ to save him and help him the rest of the way, back to the boat, first just take a minute, think of that imagery, what a scene,,,,,, in verse 31 it talks about how he could have such little faith, pondering upon this I thought of contacting, stepping off the boat to talk to literally everyone, and then letting the spirit guide us through the contacts, how little of faith I had at many moment to not talk to some people because of what every reason I tried to put in my head.

In the mission there are so many moments that I would love to share with you all, but I hope sharing these ones with you made a deference, have a great week everyone!

Elder Anderson

Let the Holy Spirit Guide

October 30, 2017

Hey Everyone,

This week we had a pretty good week, not as much time to work as normal but it was good, this past week we had a conference with president Woodward, I really enjoy it when we have conferences with him, we talked about talking with everyone and how we can really fine tune our skills, our mission is also starting many different programs that I won’t go into detail on but we are the only mission outside of the united states that has these types of programs, as well as president Woodward started a way that we give a card to someone and they can talk to our mission offices and receive videos and stuff through social media, this stuff is pretty old tec for the states but out here is pretty high tec. in these conferences with president I really get so much out of them and for sure feel of the spirit testifying of presidents words. as well as we have a pretty good time talking to all of our friends and stuff as well as president always has a good story and a few good jokes.

This past week we have been working a ton with a girl named gabby, she is 30 years old, she doesn’t have use of her right arm due to a huge car accident that put her in a be for about 4 years, she is at a point in the life where she is trying to change everything, and progress, as well as last Sunday her grandpa who raised her passed away, she now has a baptismal date for the 18th of November,

This past week in one lesson with a guy named Jose, who is a supposed super smart guy, I found that he really likes to use big words and all but really he has all the same stuff as a normal Chilean, we showed up at his house and he starts asking a question of how we are all going to be redeemed from the fall, now my knowledge of the scriptures has grown a lot on the mission but I didn’t know where to find a scripture to really answered his question, upon opening my scriptures I the spirit guided me to look in alma 34, sure enough there it was, after explaining the whole plan of salvation ( the guy even brought out a huge whiteboard to draw it out) he agreed that this was plan god has. such an amazing moment to remember that the spirit really is the teacher.

This next week end we will have a once is a lifetime conference with the presidency of the 70, my mission and the south mission are getting together this Saturday, my mission has never even gotten all together so it will be interesting to see what it looks like with 500 missionaries in one spot,

I love you all have a great week!

#whenthemissionarysavesthecat

October 23, 2017

Hello!

Hey everyone well this past week was a great getting to know the sector week, there are tons of people here that are super great, including that we had some lessons this past week that were lessons that missionaries dream about, and finding people like familes of 7 that are married!

This ward here is a super great ward, they are really trying to work hard and get all the members to focus on working with us, they have lots of trust in us and we need to make sure we take that all and use it to our advantage,

Here in this sector I am pretty happy, happy with the ward and the investigators, they all seem to have great potential, the focus now is to help them repent and help them desire to be baptized, after a wise guy told me that I need to focus more on helping people repent I found my lessons to be a lot more successful as well as we are able to find people that really want to change and that we can help.

Here in this sector is super-hot, like super-hot, a huge change from the coast to here, sunscreen has become a good friend of mine over the past week, 

This past week we were heading to an activity with some investigators at around 830 at night, we found a little kitten up on some power lines, long story short I caught a cat from free falling and hitting the pavement, ha-ha it was a good trust building moment for all the neighbors there to see that missionaries are dope.

I love you all have a great week!

Elder Anderson