Week 34: Tajin Ward

Hola familia y amigos,

Week 1 down out here in Papantla!! Honestly I am super hyped up about this new area we have a ton of good stuff going on already. 

In Papantla there are like a ridiculous amount of hills and so we are kind of dying but we are adjusting little by little. There are also a few really high flights of stairs which are also super scary. One day we were knocking doors and sometimes when people aren't interested we say ¨thank you for your time ̈  and we ask them if they know anyone that could benefit from our message. One of these people told us that there was someone at the top of this flight of stairs that was sick that we could visit. So like good missionaries we climbed this flight of stairs just to find out that no one there was sick haha. I don't know if they were just confused or that they wanted us to climb but it's totally fine haha.

Tajin is also a super awesome ward. We have been working with a ton of members and seeing who they know that we can teach. They are so willing to help us out and are also so willing to really get involved in missionary work. Honestly a huge blessing in the mission when you have that kind of support. 

That's all from this week! Loving the start of this new transfer and hope to have lots of success!!!
Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

Photos!

1. the flight of stairssss

2. PAPANTLA

 

Week 33: Transfer to Zona Papantla

Hola familia y amigos,

After 4 and a half months here in the comfortable confines of Xalapa I will be heading back up north! I will be heading to Zone Papantla and am EXTREMELY excited to head back up in the HEAT just in time for Veracruz to start to heat up for the SpringTime. I will serve as District Leader another transfer and my ward is Tajin. I will be arriving in Whitewash (when two missionaries arrive to the area at the same time) with an elder named Elder Caceres. Arriving in Whitewash is definitely going to be a huge challenge for my companion and I but I am super excited for this new challenge. Every transfer the Lord continues to push me to see if I can unlock my potential and this is just another one of those opportunities. I am sad to leave Macuiltepetl but I am grateful for all the memories I have there and for all of the success I was able to have preaching the gospel. 

Not much to update from my last week in Macuil. We had the opportunity to go on splits two days this week. The first I was able to accompany an Elder Martinez in his area and see how his friends are doing. I was able to get to know one of them that has been assisting a few times with them and we were able to teach a really awesome lesson. After that I was joined by Elder Godfrey one of our Zone Leaders in my area and was able to learn a bit from him. We also bought a 65 peso pizza that just opened up next door and it was pretty bomb. Splits are a great opportunity for us to receive feedback on our missionary work as well as help other missionaries learn a little bit about what they can do better.

Other than that really nothing else to report on. Love this work so much and I know my Savior lives. 

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

Photos!

1. Zona Macuil

2. goobye pic

3. goodbye pic

4. oxxo

5. goodbye pic

 

 

Week 32: Fasting

Hola familia y amigos,

Good week here in Macuiltepetl but fairly uneventful. We have a ton of people coming to church with us right now which is super awesome and we were able to confirm Soemi a member of the church which made us super happy. 

We were also able to do a fast with one of our friends in relation to her baptismal date which was a really cool experience for us. We fast pretty often but It was my first time doing a fast with one of our friends and it's something really special and different. I think she really saw our love and developed her own testimony of fasting, and we know the Lord will bless us in our sacrifice. 

I feel like I say this every 6 weeks but this may be my last week in Macuiltepetl as transfers are this upcoming weekend. This is the longest I have ever been in an area and it has been really cool to see the growth of the ward in my 4 and a half months serving here. The work has really progressed recently and I am grateful to have seen success in my time here. 

Love this work so much and testify of the truthfulness of it!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

Photos!

1. Elder McCollum and I rocking our painted ties

 

Week 31: Miracles in Macuiltepetl

Hola familia y amigos,

Another great week in Macuiltepetl! We saw so many miracles and are seeing so much success right now. The sad thing is that I am most likely out of here in the next two weeks but there are so many people that are progressing so rapidly almost makes me wanna stay another 6 weeks haha. Here's a wrap up:

To start we had a baptism! Soemi, a good friend of ours for a while, made the decision to be baptised this weekend and we couldn't be happier for her. In her testimony during the baptismal service she shared that on the way to the service her son asked her what she was hoping to get out of being baptised in the church. She got emotional as she told us that she was looking for a guide and that she knows she found it here within the church. She is so awesome and has a ton of faith. The other elders in the ward also had a baptism and so a ton of people came to support. It was a pretty awesome day for us. 

On Sunday we saw more miracles as we had a couple more friends of ours attend church with us. It is always an awesome feeling when you see some of the people you've been teaching walk through the chapel doors for the first time. Especially here in Macuil, where when you walk through the doors of the church you walk right into the sacrament meeting haha. And we don't have enough chairs to seat all the members and so we always scramble to find a chair for them. It's a lot of fun. 

Also the greatest miracle is that people are reading the Book of Mormon like crazy here. We gave one to a lady that we started teaching without a huge explanation because we didn't have a lot of time and she's already in 2 Nephi haha. Another girl we have been teaching is already like a 4th through the Book. They say that conversion is easiest when they take the time to read the book that holds everything we teach together and we are 100% seeing that right now haha. Miracles after miracles here in Macuiltepetl!

The work is going STRONG here and I am loving it. The worst weeks and days in the mission are always followed by the best weeks and days. I love this gospel and this work!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

Photos!

1. Baptism with Soemi!

2. Everyone who came to the baptismal service!

 

Week 30: The Atonement

Hola familia y amigos,

This week was another good one here in Xalapa! Let's give a quick little update.

This week was Zone Conference. I always love Zone Conference but this one hit me a little deeper than normal. It was super powerful and almost every talk and every class focused on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and its impact on our missionary work. The Atonement is the reason why we do everything we do and is why we have every blessing that we have as well. It really got me thinking that in the field I should do nothing but work to educate every single person I can about the power of the Atonement in our lives. I have seen lives change because of the Atonement and I want every person to have that opportunity.

Other than that it was fun to see the other missionaries and spend some time with them. We had a ton of missionaries that arrived to the mission field with me and it was fun to see how much we have grown and changed.

In the mission work we are still working hard. We have a couple baptisms scheduled for the upcoming weeks and we are super excited for them. We have been teaching a few people for a good amount of time now and we are excited to see them keep progressing in the gospel. Hopefully I will be able to give a couple good updates about these friends of hours in the next few weeks. 

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

Photos

1. Zona Macuiltepetl

2. The Generation of Champs 

3. Gave Elder Godfrey a lift

Week 29: People Are Prepared

Hola familia y amigos!!

This week we kept grinding and doing a ton of good work. We have a lot of people we are teaching right now and we are hoping that the majority of them progress. We have also seen a ton of miracles this week. We have found a good amount of people that have shown real interest. Sometimes we can go a few weeks without meeting one. 

This past week I was walking down the street with an Elder Heninger in splits. He is from Canada and has only been here in Veracruz for about 2 weeks. Apparently two white kids looking fairly new to the area intrigued a woman and stopped us to figure out who we were. We explained to her and she told us that she always had questions about the church but never had the courage to ask one of us. We were able to set up an appointment with her and taught her and her two daughters a few days later. They are super interested and super awesome as well. 

A couple days later we were knocking doors and we knocked on one and he immediately invited us in. He told us that he has had a few illnesses but has a strong testimony in Jesus Christ. We were able to give him a blessing and he was so grateful for our visit. 

This week was really a testament to me that there are always people that are prepared and we just have to find them. There are people that are searching for the gospel and we just have to work hard and trust the Lord will put them in our path.

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

Photos

1. a view

2. another view

3. a tie one sister painted for me!

Week 28: Rain

Hola familia y amigos!

It's going out here in Macuiltepetl! We're working really hard and seeing a ton of miracles. The Lord is really blessing our work here and we are just loving it and taking advantage of every moment.

This week it rained almost all week which was a super bummer because we had to cancel our soccer activity which is our best access to some of our friends that are coming to church. But we were able to visit them and they are still super excited about the church and everything. We have also been talking with a ton of people in the rain which I think also gives us added blessings haha.

Other than that not a lot to report on haha! We are just working really hard and have high aspirations for the next month and a half here in our area. Hopefully I will give a couple updates a little better in the future weeks haha.

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

Photo!

1. my name