Week 52: Transfers!

 Hey y'all! 

Had another great week in Dripping Springs which will unfortunately be my last. Transfer news came out last night, I will be getting transferred to the Hill Country Ward (super close, same District and everything) and will be training a new reassigned missionary! I will meet him on Wednesday. I am excited for the opportunity to train a new missionary but sad to leave the Dripping Springs area. I only spent one transfer there within COVID restrictions but still fell in love with the ward members and the community.

This week we did much of the same! Lots of service, lots of zoom calls, and lots of social media finding. We did some good projects for our friends Tina and Christian, and put in a good amount of time at the Thrift Store. The thing I love about service is that even if a project or effort doesn't lead to success missionary wise, we can still feel proud knowing we have done good for the community and helped people in need. Just like the famous quote from King Benjamin says, "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17). I testify of the power of service and the importance of it in the circumstances we live in today. Go out and serve!! ((while keeping proper social distance requirements))

Love and miss you all! 

Elder Anderson 

 

 

Week 51: Killer Wasps

Hey y'all!

This week we ate outside with members!! President Fox gave the go ahead to eat socially distanced meals with members in their backyard if they are okay with it. Most members still do the classic drop off or pick up but the other day we got to eat with our Bishop and his family and it was super nice to be with them. It almost felt kind of normal again. Hopefully this trend continues. 

This week we went up and visited Tina again. She has these huge killer wasps that try to get in her house so we helped close off as many entrances as we could with caulk and stuff so none could get in. We also tried to take some out with wasp spray if we saw them. One time Tina saw one on the side of the house and then yell in her german accent, "Why are you here?!" before spraying it down for 10 seconds and then stomping on it once it hit the floor. It was pretty epic. We continue to teach her afterwards which is good. She seems interested to continue learning and would like to come to church. 

We also had Zone Conference this week! It was great to spend time with President and Sister Fox and learn from them. They are seriously the best and are so good at showing so much love and care to their missionaries. The APs also gave a cool training where they compared the Book of Mormon to gravity mentioning at one point that we tend to take for granted the effect the Book of Mormon has on conversion, just like we take for granted gravity and all of its effects. 

Other than that it's a whole lot of the same! Online proselytizing didn't produce a ton for us this last week but we are hopeful for the next!

Love and miss you all! 

Elder Anderson

Wait, we also moved apartments this week! I can't believe I totally forgot that. Anyways my new address is,

761 Trinity Hills Dr Apt #1205

Austin, TX 

78737

Just in case y'all wanna send me letters :)

Week 50: Virtual Dinners

Hey y'all!

Time is flying here in Dripping Springs! I feel like I just got here but the transfer is almost up already. Here's what's been going on. 

Service! This week we had some awesome service opportunities. One morning we helped out our friend Tina, she's a little german lady who lives out in the middle of nowhere. Her husband passed away a few years ago so we help her with jobs every now and then. This last time after we finished she mentioned that she had lost two boys in their infancy and it was like we were her two boys. We thought that was cute. We also helped out a man named Christian. He also lives in the middle of nowhere and is an older man. We go up with our ward mission leader and help clean up garbage and do dishes and help fix up his place. He can't really take care of himself and lives pretty humbly so it's a big help when we go up and help. 

Social Media! We keep doing our thing on social media. We have had some pretty good chats with people and have shared a good amount of scriptures. We also taught a lesson in spanish too! His name is Manuel and he was in one of the Austin facebook groups we joined. The only problem is that he lives in El Salvador haha. I don't know why he was in the Austin facebook group but it was a good lesson nonetheless. We are going to hopefully get him in contact with missionaries closer to his house haha. 

President and Sister Fox recently have challenged us to do "virtual dinners" with members of our ward. Basically we both make our own meals and then eat it with them over zoom just as we would a normal dinner appointment. Since dinner appointments are such a great way to meet families and COVID has taken that away at the moment it was a pretty good experience to chat with some of the families like normal. While we hope we can get back to normal normal soon it's cool seeing the ways we have been able to innovate. 

Imma share a scripture with y'all today! John 16:22 says, "And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you". I love that! The joy of the gospel is one that no man can take away. It is one that no pandemic can take away either. Although we may feel sorrow occasionally and go through trials, the joy of the gospel is everlasting. We will never go through anything so tough that we won't feel of that joy again. It will always be there. 

Love and miss y'all so much! 

Elder Anderson

Week 49: Service, Zoom Calls & Social Media

Hey y'all!

The work keeps chugging along in the TAM! Here are some of the highlights:

SERVICE! We are still going hard on the service here in Drippin. This week we helped maintain a bonfire, move some stuff, and do some of your classic yardwork. We also helped a couple more days at the Thrift Store. The store owner is named Chris and he always gives the missionaries nicknames when he gets to know them well enough. This week he gave me the nickname FedEx. It was partially because I wore a blue hat with an orange shirt but also because I "always deliver". So that was fun.

ZOOM CALLS! We've had a couple more calls and have gotten to meet a few more members. Our goal in the calls is to get to know the family and also help spiritually uplift them and help them get fired up about missionary work. We had a cool experience where we shared Moroni 7 with one family regarding spiritual promptings from the Lord. The family told us that they had someone they wanted to share the gospel with and that this was their sign that they needed to act on it. 

SOCIAL MEDIA! Not much going on Facebook wise. We have met a few nice people, but no one who is seriously interested in learning more. Our page is slowly building but haven't seen much success on that either. However President Fox wants to make that a priority so we will continue being diligent in that aspect. Also some people are mean and it's funny to just be nice and offer service to them cuz they get more mad. 

Okay that was the week! Hook em!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

Week 48: Quarantine Missionary Work

Hey y'all!

Another good week in Texas! With quarantining still in full effect, our missionary efforts seem to be focused in three main areas. 

1. SERVICE! This week we were again given a ton of opportunities to serve. We helped out at the thrift store like normal, moving furniture and running errands for people. We also did a couple days of yard work for a few friends of ours and did a little bit of moving as well. The opportunities to serve just keep on coming and I'm loving it. 

2. SOCIAL MEDIA! We were encouraged by President and Sister Fox to increase our efforts on social media and that's what we did. We have officially been given the rights to "The Church of Jesus Christ in Dripping Springs" facebook page (give it a like and follow if you haven't already ;) ) and have been posting inspiration and have some fun ideas moving forward. We have also been reaching out to people that we see have church interests and offer to share with them scriptures on hope and peace. It's been working so well! It's just a lot harder for me to sit at a computer all day instead of getting out and talking to people. 

3. ZOOM CALLS! Zoom has been huge for us. We've been able to meet a ton of members through 30 minute zoom meetings and have been able to stay involved in church meetings as well. 

And that's basically it! We had interviews with President Fox the other day and it was great to be able to get together and meet him in person and chat with him. We also went into Austin for PDay today so that was cool too

Love and miss you all! 

Elder Anderson

Wait also, my address is 

761 trinity hills drive apt 4103 

Austin Texas

If y'all want to send me letters please do it that would be hype also my email address is anderson.jack@missionary.org if you just want to send me an email too I would love to know how y'all are doing! 

 

 

Week 47: Service

Hola familia y amigos!

Week 2 down in the TAM!! (Texas Austin Mission) Things are definitely picking up now that I am getting fully adjusted to missionary life again. Here are the highlights from this week:

Wednesday we got to meet our new mission president! His name is President Fox and he and his wife are from Oklahoma. We met with him wednesday morning in person as a zone. We had to wear masks the whole time and all companionships had to social distance but it was great. He seems really cool I am super pumped to get to know him. We have interviews this upcoming Friday. 

A couple times a week we volunteer at the local senior thrift store. Basically all of the volunteers there are getting up there in years and so when we come we spend our time moving furniture and smashing and throwing away stuff that isn't good anymore. It's a lot of fun and Chris, the thrift store owner, loves referring people to the missionaries to do service and teach. He's not a member but he has a lot of respect for the church and he loves helping out the missionaries as well. Basically our best form of contacting right now is working at the thrift store while Chris sends people our way haha. 

Another idea we had this past week was to join local Dripping Springs Facebook groups and send out a message offering free service. It worked a lot better than expected. On thursday we moved rocks for a lady that reached out to us on Facebook and afterwards we read Mosiah 2:17 with her. We invited her to find her own way to serve others and she thought that was a great idea. 

We then had another service with someone that reached out to us on Facebook on Saturday pulling weeds. She and her husband were both actually born in the church but decided to leave it a while ago. She had been attending another church but because of Covid there haven't been meetings and she's been bummed about it. We offered to bring her a Come, Follow Me of the New Testament to focus her studies and she thought that was great. 

That's about it for the week!! Hope everyone is having fun and staying safe!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

Week 46: We back!

Hola familia y amigos!

We back! Who doesn't love a sequel amiright? And I hit my year mark this week so it's all just coming in nicely. Here's how my first week back went.

I arrived to San Antonio monday and had our little introduction. We got to walk around the San Antonio temple and spend some time with President. Then, because transfers were happening on thursday they put all of us in temporary trios. I got put with Elder Olea and Elder Densley.

Tuesday we had service with an older member of our ward. He wanted us to replace the water in his pond and river thing and also clear off this treehouse he had built a little while ago. It was about three stories and when we got to the top we saw this grey fox perched on the fence of the tree house like a cat. It was nuts. Then it jumped. I'm pretty sure it hurt itself because its not a cat but I guess we'll never know. 

Thursday was transfer day! I got put with an Elder named Elder Earl. Really cool guy from Orem, Utah with about 18 months in the mission. My area is Dripping Springs which is right near Austin. Really cool area with some great members I am super pumped about it. These transfers were also very significant because the San Antonio mission is splitting and making the Austin mission! So I am officially going to be in my third mission, as a member of the Texas Austin Mission. Our president comes this Wednesday it should be a great experience. 

Saturday we had another service project with a lady named Tina. She is not a member and is originally from Germany. Missionaries before us had given her a Book of Mormon and had been in contact with her. We laid a bunch of mulch for her and spread it out. We then were able to share a spiritual thought with her and testify of Christ. We had her read it in her German Book of Mormon to really take it in. We read Helaman 5:12 and discussed it. We hope to see some progress with her soon. 

Good first and last week in the Texas San Antonio mission and I'm excited for my first official week in the Texas Austin mission! 

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson