Week 72: Church Shopping

 Hey y'all!

It's only been a couple days since I sent my last email, and not much has happened so I will keep this one fairly short. 

Christmas night we spent with the Hornbeck family, some of my favorite people in the entire world. We ate a huge dinner and did a little gift exchange. Because half of the elders in the ward are in quarantine right now we FaceTimed them in to make them feel included. 

Saturday we went on exchanges with Elder McAllister, one of the APs in our mission. We were able to teach a cool first lesson with a girl we found over Facebook a few weeks ago. She is currently "church shopping" and as we explained Joseph Smith and the restoration she said "that sounds like me!". She is super prepared and we hope to continue to work with her.

That's it for these last couple days! 

Love and miss you all! 

Elder Anderson

 

 

Week 71: Merry Christmas!

 Hey y'all! 

And Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a wonderful day and enjoy the holidays. I am so grateful for each and every one of you and am so grateful for all your support and love over the years. This week was another fantastic week, here are a few of the highlights. 

Last week we had MLC! It was fun seeing some of my favorite missionaries all in one place. We went over and talked about some changes to the mission standards and also some of the needs of the mission. We also recieved training on some important aspects of social media content in order to find more people to teach. One important point is that we are supposed to be FINDING those who need the gospel, not CREATING them. Therefore we should focus less on entertaining, fun content with a little gospel message and focus more on uplifting spiritual content thats bound to catch the eye of someone who is curious to learn more. 

This last Tuesday we had a super special Christmas Zone Conference. We had 3 zones there, Waco, Killeen, and Cedar Park which was cool because we havent had an opportunity to have a multi-zone conference since President Fox got here. We recieved some training and then President Fox suprised us by putting Polar Express on. It was a Christmas miracle. What was super suprising to me though is how much that movie actually applies to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Throughout the whole thing I kept seeing parallels and similarities between the movie and what we teach. 

One big theme for me is forgiveness. Over and over again when he pulls the emergency brake, loses the ticket, and gets lost in Santas sack he is forgiven by the conductor and gets right back in place. No matter how much we mess up we still can be forgiven. I also like in the last scene when he cant hear the bells, but all you can hear is the loud cheering noise of the elves. Also as he tries to see through the elves to Santa he cannot because there are so many people and things in the way. Sometimes we cant see or hear Christ because we have so many worldly things blocking our view or worldy noises surrounding our ears. However, it wasnt until he made the effort to believe with all his heart that he was able to hear the bells (or Jesus Christ) and he got to see him in front of him with no distractions or blocks in his view. I never thought the Polar Express could be so spiritually enlightening to me before I became a missionary. 

Love and miss you all! Have a very Merry Christmas and Ill make sure to catch you at the next one! 

Elder Anderson

 

 

Week 70: Quad Squad

 Hey y'all! 

This was another lightening fast week in the mission field. Here are some of the highlights:

-Tuesday we had a lesson with an old interested person we found named Cory! Hes a really cool guy and had lots of questions about God and about baptism. We told him we'd meet consistently with him to help continue to answer his questions and so he can grow closer to God. 

-Wednesday we picked up our new trainee! The QUAD SQUAD officially began as Elder Hunt, Janeway and I picked up Elder Jenson. Hes from New Jersey and is a super cool guy. Hes been a huge addition to our team already and we are excited for all of the good work we are going to get done together. 

-Thursday we had a lesson with a young couple who the other elders have been teaching. We went over tithing and fasting and the blessings that have been recieved. The wife got emotional as she testified of all the blessings she has recieved in her life  because of God. She said also that she knows that this was the church she was a part of in the life before this and that she feels so at home. It was a cool testimony for sure. 

-Yesterday at church President and Sister Fox came up and joined our sacrament meeting. Afterwards we had a great meeting with him and covered a wide list of topics including the growth of the spanish group, 8 elders in the ward and some of our Facebook efforts. Everytime we talk I can just tell how in tune he is with the spirit and how much he thinks about and cares for us. 

Well those are the highlights! 

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson 

Week 69: QUAD

 Hey y'all! 

This week was another good one! We headed into Austin a few times for some meetings. We had lots of good lessons and kept super busy. Here are some of the highlights:

A less active member reached out to us about recieving the missionary lessons. He explained that he has been struggling with a few issues right now and he wants to fully grasp what he believes and what he doesnt believe. Hes had a good amount of trials in his life and he just wants to understand better the gospel. We were able to teach him the first lesson this week and he realized just how much he knows and has learned in his life. We hope to continue to further his faith in Christ and help him improve his life. 

We had a family night with a sister in the spanish branch and some of our investigators. We had dinner and played some games and shared a spiritual message. It was a great opportunity for the investigators to continue to learn more about the church and it sounded like they enjoyed it. 

Also Light The World has been so awesome!!! It has been such a great experience to participate in the days so far and I have seen huge blessings from it. My favorite day was definitely when we watched the Christ Child video. It was so great to remember Christ's birth and watch it in such a realistic way. 

Also transfers were announced yesterday! My companions and I are all staying put but we are getting a new companion making us a QUAD for the next 11 days until Elder Hunt heads off to Paraguay. So thats exciting. 

Love and miss you all! 

Elder Anderson