Week 68: #givethanks

 Hey y'all!! 

Happy Thanksgiving! This week was great but fairly uneventful.  We had a couple service activities early in the week and did lots of work online. We followed President Nelson's invitation to make social media our own gratitude journal and even carried that over into meetings with the members and stuff we posted on our local Facebook page. I have never loved social media more than these last few days with all of the gratitude posts I saw. For a second I totally forgot about all the hate and toxicity we find online sometimes. Hopefully we can carry this into Christmas and start to make a change on social media for good. 

Thanksgiving we spent with the Hornbeck family in the ward. They are so much fun and took on the daunting task of feeding our whole district, all 10 of us. They handled it with ease and I was left fighting to keep myself from sending all I had eaten right back up. So worth it though. 

Anyways that's the quick run down!! 

Love and miss y'all! 

Elder Anderson 

Week 67: Baptism of Jeancarlo!

 Hey y'all! 

This week was SUCH a good week! We had a mission tour with Elder Pieper, President of the North America Southwest area. We learned so much about the importance of daily planning and following the spirit, as well as helping those we teach get answers by themselves and become spiritually self-reliant. Too often I think of myself as being the person to answer all of the questions that our friends we are teaching have but Elder Pieper taught us to be the ones to give the resources we have so that they can find out answers themselves. These resources include prayer, gospel library and the scriptures, and local church leaders. His teachings really changed my thought process about missionary work and I hope to apply these principles in my work from here on out. 

Also the prophet's message on Friday was amazing! It was such a simple message but also such a powerful remedy for the plagues our world is dealing with at the moment. I have loved seeing so many people participating in the gratitude challenge on social media and I have loved participating as well. I am grateful for living prophets and for the direction they receive straight from God! 

However the highlight of the week was definitely the baptism of Jeancarlo! It was such a great experience to see him be baptized. He was also baptized by James, who is recently baptized himself as of September and it was cool to see him exercise his Aaronic Priesthood authority. We saw so many miracles in the process of getting Jeancarlo ready to be baptized and it was such a neat experience yesterday to be able to participate in the service. The work moves forward!! 

Love and miss you all! 

Elder Anderson 

Week 66: Teaching, Service, Miracles

 Hey y'all! 

We were very busy this week! We had lots of lessons, did some service, and saw lots of miracles like always. Here are the highlights:

-Wednesday Elder Hunt and I picked up our new missionary. His name is Elder Janeway and he's from Portland, Oregon. He loves playing basketball so he's gotten along really well with Elder Hunt and I.

-Thursday we had a lesson with the Campbells. Sister Campbell is a member but Brother Campbell is not. We shared a lesson on keeping the commandments and making the most out of this life. 

-Friday we had a powerful lesson with the Gayosso family. We retaught the Restoration and they understood is really well. The spirit was so strong and we could tell they felt it too as we spoke. We committed them to read and pray for real and they came to church with us on Sunday which was great. 

-Sunday we had a lesson with Jeancarlo and Maximo, two 11 year old boys we've been teaching. We taught them about the doctrine of Christ and we planned for them to be baptized this upcoming Sunday which is exciting. They were very excited when we asked them if they wanted to be baptized which made us happy for them. 

Overall great week! 

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson 

Week 65: Lots to Do in Marble Falls

 Hey y'all! 

Last night we received transfer news, Elder Hunt and I will be trio training another new missionary so that's very exciting! Always love greenies that keep the fire going in our area. This week was another solid week in Marble Falls, we had lots to do and did a lot of good! Here are the highlights:

Tuesday we had our first official lesson with Jeancarlo, an 11 year old boy who's living with a member family. He LOVES the Book of Mormon and always asks us when he's going to get baptized. He was telling us all about Alma and Amulek which is sweet because I dont even know if I knew that much at 11 years old (idk maybe I did). We taught the restoration and watched the 20 minute movie for him to see. We are excited to continue to meet with him. 

Friday we had another lesson with the Gayosso family. We taught them a little more about families and got to know some of their relatives who are visiting for the next couple months from Hidalgo, Mexico. They knew some members of the church in Mexico and want to know more about the church which is great. They also want to come to church so hopefully they do here soon. 

Anyways those were some highlights! We did some fun service as well, had some other meetings and lessons and did a lot of work on Facebook. 

Love and miss you all! 

Elder Anderson 

Week 64: Lots of Teaching!

 Hey y'all! 

This week was one of the best weeks of my mission for sure. We were super busy, all over the place getting stuff done. Here are some of the highlights.

Wednesday we had a bible study with a man named Tim who we met through Facebook through a Bible Study ad we posted a little while back. He's looking to get closer to God after a few tragedies he's had recently. We had a really good zoom lesson and he was super excited to set up another time to meet in the future. We are excited to continue to work with him. 

Friday we had a lesson with a lady who we met over Facebook who is a member of the church but hasn't been in a really long time. She has a 3 year old son who has dealt with a lot of tragedy already in his life and she wanted us to help answer questions about God to him. It was a really good visit and she mentioned that she wanted to come back to church for her son. We are going to meet consistently with them as well. Friday night we also had a really good lesson with the Gayossos, a spanish family we've been teaching for a while. We brought the new elders and had a fun time with them. They then came to our Ward Halloween Activity the next day and had a fun time getting to know more of the ward. 

Sunday we attended the Llano branch's church service. They are a tiny branch and rent their church building from a Pentecostal church but they are strong members and their was a strong spirit in the Fast and Testimony meeting.

There were so many more miracles this week but those were the highlights! Happy Halloween y'all! 

Love and miss you all! 

Elder Anderson