Week 14: Chicken Feet

Hola familia y amigos!!

Another great week here in Tihuatlan. This transfer is flying by and winding down quickly. Loving my time with the people here and have been so grateful to call it my home for the beginning of my mission.

Elder Gavia and I had the opportunity to see a ton of miracles this week. Every day we can see how the Lord is blessing us in our labores and it is so rewarding. Early this week we had a little stretch of literally 15 minutes where we met a super awesome family in the street, found an inactive family that is thinking about returning to the gospel who have children that aren't baptized yet, and found another awesome guy who has a ton of questions about the gospel. Afterward we just had to sit there and rest because the Lord is feeding us so many blessings haha. 

Today we had a multi zone activity with Zona Poza Rica and Zona Palmas. It was super fun, we got to play some soccer and volleyball and hang out with a ton of missionaries. I might have gotten a little burnt but whats new haha. I also went up to the Christ statue again with Elder Gavia because he hadn´t gone up before. It really is beautiful and gives me a tiny glimpse of the glory that he has. This work really is all for him. 

Overall these weeks have been great. I love when we can get into a lesson with people who will listen to our lesson because the spirit I feel when I get the opportunity to testify of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. Such an incredible opportunity. I love this gospel and testify of this work!

Love and miss you all,

Elder Anderson

1. Me downing a chicken foot 

2. Elder Gavia and I with our man Eder

3. Christ Statue!

4. Me with a beautiful view of Tihuatlan :)

 

Week 13: Trainer Lineage

Hola Familia y Amigos!!

Super crazy busy week this week! He is how it basically went down. 

Thursday we had interviews with our mission president. Always a fun time and a great opportunity to receive council from our President who has been called of God. It is funny thinking back to my first round of interviews about 6 weeks ago and how much I have grown in those weeks. 

Friday was our Zone Conference where the Northern Zones of our mission (Poza Rica, Palmas, Tuxpan, and Papantla) meet together and hear from Leaders of the Mission as well the Mission President, attend classes in order to better our work and hang out with our missionaries. They are always incredibly uplifting and I am always so grateful to receive guidance from the Leaders of our mission who are so strong in the work and in their faith. 

Something funny about the mission is that your first trainer that you receive in the mission is your Dad and your second trainer (if it is different than your first) is your Mom. And of course the trainer of your trainer is your Grandpa/ Grandma and so forth. Something pretty fun is that since Elder Gavia (my mom) is so new in the mission like me, and his trainer was new too, we have a whole family line in the mission. So in the Zone Conference I was their with mi Mama, mi Abuelo, mi Bisabuelo, y mi Tatarabuelo. It was a whole fun family reunion. I have a pic to prove it too.

After the conference Elder Gavia and I put on a Family Home Evening type thing for our branch in Tihuatlan. We planned a spiritual thought about General Conference, played some Family Feud, and ate Tamales with Horchata. It was a super fun experience and a good amount of ward members and investigators were able to attend which made it all totally worth it. (I also totally destroyed in the Family Feud so I may be going pro after the mission). 

And of course the week finished with another incredible General Conference. We are so incredibly lucky to be able to listen to the words of our prophet and apostles. I testify that they receive revelation for each and every one of us. A talk that really stuck out to me was Dieter F Uchtdorf´s about discipleship in this world. What a great reminder for us in this ever changing world filled with temptation and distractions. The line I loved was when he said, ¨Discipleship is not about doing things perfectly, it´s about doing things intentionally¨. The Lord blesses us when we make conscious decisions to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love that and am so grateful for the gospel in my life.

I love and miss you all and hope you had a great week!

Elder Anderson

Pics!

1. Zona Poza Rica!!!!!!!!!

2. My mom, my grandpa, my great-grandpa, and my great,great grandpa 

3. A little pic of our activity 

Week 12: Stake Conference & Slip N Slide

Hola familia y amigos!

This week we had stake conference here in stake Poza Rica. We got to hear from the temple president in Tampico and also our mission president. We also got to hear a ton of testimonies from return missionaries and from missionaries who are about to leave. It was awesome to see the strength from the members here all gathered together. Many of these members are recent converts or were recent converts at one point in their life, and I love seeing them all hold important callings and serve with power as if they had been doing it since birth. Once you take the step to follow Christ he really does change you and give you the strength to do anything possible. The youth of the membership here in Poza Rica just makes me super excited to see the growth that will occur within the next generations.

Today for our Zone activity we had a slip n slide and did human bowling. Super fun. We also ate at this place called Peter Pipers Pizza which I am pretty sure is in the United States too but its like a pizza buffet and I am pretty sure I had like 14 pieces. Not healthy but gotta make it worth the money. With the tortillas and pizza I may officially be more carb than person. Its scary. 

This week we had a ton of success finding and teaching people which is super exciting. We are hoping to get a ton of people to come to the church this week and see the living profet and his apostles instructing us on important matters in this day and age. I am so excited! They say here that there comes a ton of success around General Conference times because the spirit is so strong and it testifies of the living prophet that lives on the earth today. I challenge each and one of you to tune in this weekend and if you were already planning on it, I challenge you to invite friends to join and watch it with you. I promise the Lord will bless you. 

I forgot the tortilla count for last week so here they are

Last week: 36

This week: 41

Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!! 

Elder Anderson 

Pictures!

1. Slip and Slide!

2. Eating at Peter Pipers Pizza Buffet and feeling like I was in the USA

Week 11: Elder Gavia (New Trainer!)

Hola Familia y Amigos!!

Great first week of the transfer here in Tihuatlan! I met my new companion on Tuesday and we got right to work! His name is Elder Gavia, he only has 6 months in the mission and is full of energy and loves the work. He is great at talking to people about the gospel and starting conversations and I have learned so so so much from him in this first week. We have been working like crazy trying to find and teach more people here and while there have been some challenges, we have been making some really good progress. 

One funny thing that happened this week is that we found this really cool family that lives close to the church building and we started teaching them. We got through one of the lessons and we wanted to invite them to be baptized. While inviting them to be baptized not once, not twice, but three times their 5 year old kid and their dog interrupted in some way or another. That little brat was definitely up to know good haha. Joking!!! They are all super awesome and they accepted and we are hoping to have them progress to be able to reach that goal of baptism. 

In preparation for General Conference in a few weeks I have been listening to a lot of old conference talks and coming up with questions that I would like answered during the sessions. I challenge all of you to prepare these next couple weeks for this incredible occasion to hear the words of the living prophets and apostles on the earth today. I testify of their power and authority and the incredible blessing it is to have that authority on the earth today. The central part of our message as missionaries is that that authority of God was lost for many years after Christ and was restored with Joseph Smith and is still on the earth today. Because of that we can be shielded from the temptations of the world and prepare to return and live with God again. What an incredible blessing!

I love you all and hope you are doing so well

Elder Anderson

Pictures!

1 & 2. Elder Gavia and our food at the local taqueria. :)

3. Picture of Christ and the moon 

Week 10: 1st Transfers

Hola Familia y Amigos!!!

Well... Its the end of the Trump and Obama era in Tihuatlan... Elder Almonte (the lost son of Obama) is heading out and I (hijo of Trump) am staying in Tihuatlan!! I´m getting my new comp tomorrow which is super exciting. I´ve heard he is super awesome and super fun so I can´t wait. Very grateful for everything I learned from Elder Almonte it is going to be super weird to not have him training me anymore but I am excited to continue the work in Tihuatlan!!! 

They say week 6 of the transfer is the week of miracles and they were definitely right. It rained 4 times this week. It was like a total Holes, Shia Labouf situation I swear. Someone must have carried Zero up some mountain somewhere. Crazy stuff. Anyways this week was overall super great! This weekend is the weekend of Mexico´s independance day which is super crazy. They go bonkers for this weekend and for their country. I love it. Saturday night we were able to go to a Stake Party in the Stake Center and it was filled with singing, dancing and entertaining and of course dressing in Green, White, and Red. Me and a few other missionaries went to the market before and bought a ton of clothing and stuff for it and got decked out. 

Not much else to report on this week. Just trying to better my spanish and prepare myself to keep growing in this work! This transfer is going to require a lot from me because while I am still being trained, I am the one who knows the area and everyone so I am going to have to be putting myself out there a bit more which I am excited for. Love this work and know this church is true!!

Tortilla Count: 36

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

Pics!!

1.Elder Almonte and I stranded in Tihuatlan during a rain storm

2. Me and my brazilian Elder Macedo

3. Viva Mexico Sombrero

4. Zona Poza Rica!!!!

Week 9: Tortilla Count!

Hola familia y amigos!!!

Another great week in Tihuatlan! This upcoming week is transfers so this might be my last which would be super sad. This little town gave me a lot that I will forever be grateful for. Let's talk about the week!!

Last week at our District meeting we all agreed (for some reason) that if we didn´t hit our companion goals for the week we would have to wax a part of our legs. Of course we only set high goals out here in Tihuatlan so we came up short and had to get M X waxed into our legs (Mexico Xalapa). Super fun time, and the smooth m x on my leg is a nice change as well as a reminder to hit the goals that we set. Goal setting is something really important that I have learned and come to love here. It gives us so much direction and when we set high, but reasonable goals the Lord blesses us with the help and direction we need. 

This week we had a lot of disappointments, a couple HUGE appointments fell through that we needed and it didn´t feel like we made huge progress with our current investigators. We spent a looooot of time walking, but were able to figure out a lot of our plan for the upcoming week. We are hopeful for a lot of progress this upcoming week. We have a really small branch, with many members who are inactive or less active. Because of that one of our focuses has been on reactivating members. It has been interesting to visit a lot of these members and see how the gospel can re-bless their lives. We have gotten a couple of these inactive members to come to church these past couple weeks and I have visibly seen their change when they go. The Lord blesses us immensely when we keep the Sabbath Day Holy and attend church. 

I am starting a new exciting section to this email!! 

Tortilla Count this week: 46

Honestly disappointing start to the tortilla count update but I will hope for more next week.

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

1. Our church!

2.  Our hermanas waxing my leg

3. Elder Taylor and I after the waxing had been completed

4. Christ statue sunrise

Week 8: Progression

Hola Familia y Amigos!

Another great week in Tihuatlan! This week we worked super hard and found A TON of new people to meet with. It is incredible how receptive and open the people here are to listening to our message and its been such a blessing to be here with these people. The work in Mexico is truly growing so rapidly and I couldn´t imagine being anywhere else. So much to be grateful for! Let´s talk about this week:

Earlier this week had splits with the District Leader where one of us leaves and the District Leader takes our spot in our area. This is for training and to help strengthen the work here. We have them every week but in the past I have left the area and the District Leader has been companions with Elder Almonte in Tihuatlan. But this time Elder Almonte left, meaning that I would be the Senior Companion and stay with the District Leader in our area. At first I was freaking out, because I didn´t think I was ready to plan and lead our day, but it was honestly such a blessing and I think I surprised myself with my ability to lead and serve. It is incredible how much the Lord has blessed me here with confidence and with the language. I can't imagine doing it without Him.

We have a couple people really progressing in the the gospel and we are hoping to keep them centered and progressing in our messages. We have been having troubles with the situation with the Triplets, and we have been praying diligently and having a lot of faith. I will definitely make sure to give updates on the progress of our investigators because it makes me so happy to be able to see their growth. Theres no better feeling than the feeling of bringing others the gospel that has blessed my life for so long. 

I don´t have a ton to say this week so the classic thing to do is to bear my testimony!! I know this church is true, and I know that Russell M. Nelson is truly leading it on the earth today. I know the Joseph Smith restored the true church on the earth as well as translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God. I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God and the biggest blessing in my life. There is power in this book and in this gospel that cannot come from any other source than from our Heavenly Father. Have doubts about the church or are curious about the gospel? Read this book! Feeling down, stressed, anxious, burnt-out, inadequate, lost? Read this book!! That is my message and that is what I am preaching every single day and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

Love you all! I have pictures this week!

1. The hill from last week

2. Zone Picture from Zone Conference

3. A cool part of Tihuatlan

4. Me and the neighbor schnauzer CiCi which is my piece of home here