Week 77: English Classes

 Hey y'all!

This week blew by! So much going on, so many things to do, yet so little time haha. Its been a huge blessing that we have stayed so busy, recently, the Lord continues to bless us with so many opportunities to do things. Most of this week we haven't even really had to daily plan, we just wake up and our schedule is made for us. It's crazy that even as we continue to feel restricted every now and then with the pandemic and everything we still find a way to be some of the busiest I have been in my mission.

One new thing we are doing is starting an English class! Because we are trying to grow our Spanish group here in Marble Falls we have been looking for new ways to reach and target Spanish speakers in the area. Last week we decided to start preparing to make a Free English Class for those in the area as a way to serve those in the community, as well as get to meet new people. There are so many people here who come over from Latin America who know hardly any English and have a tough time getting around so we want to help give them the resources to be able to communicate better. Our first class starts this Thursday and we hope that a ton of people will come. 

To advertise the English class we have been asking to put flyers up at local restaurants and gas stations. As we were driving the other night my companion spotted a little Mexican food truck and we decided to ask. After chowing down on some yummy food we asked to put up a flyer and they said of course and asked when the classes were. They all said they were interested in coming and that they will be there. It was awesome to see that people actually really need this service and would jump on the chance to attend.

We also had MLC this week! It was a super powerful conference, with a lot of great training and teaching from our President. One big focus for the conference was repentance, and how we can better use repentance as well as teach it to our friends that we are teaching. We had some great discussion and were asked to study repentance this week and see how we can apply it better in our teaching. We also talked about some mission goals for the year 2021 and the optimism we have to be able to have lots of success teaching and finding people this year. Even after a rough 2020 our mission is optimistic because of the things we have learned in this last year in regards to technology and social media. I know 2021 will be an incredible year for missionary work.

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

 

 

 

Week 76: Teaching & Progressing

 Hey y'all!

We had yet another busy week here in Marble Falls. It's been such a good feeling to start our daily planning sessions filled with planned activities for the day, it really makes things a lot easier for us and keeps us busy and focused. This week we did say goodbye to Elder Janeway and Elder Hunt, as they headed off to new assignments. Elder Hunt was with me for 4 months and got to be really close with, Elder Janeway I was with for almost 3 months and also got to become good friends with. I am excited to see what they do in their new areas and assignments.

As for our week, our big highlights were in some of the lessons we taught. We had a couple awesome visits with the Estrada family, a really good lesson with the Gayosso family, and another good virtual lesson with Julio. They all continue to be progressing In the gospel and we can feel the spirit so strongly as we teach them the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. One theme we seemed to focus on with all of them was the Vision of the Tree of Life by Lehi in the 8th chapter of 1 Nephi. I love the idea of grabbing hold to the word of God and pushing forward, admist trials and distractions we face every day. It's cool to see people we are teaching commit to do the same and grab hold of the word of God. They are such great examples to me and I learn so much as I teach them.

Well that's it for this week!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

 

 

Week 75: Birthday Week

 Hey y'all!

This week was super great. We were so busy and of course saw so many miracles. Here's the wrap up for the week:

Wednesday I celebrated my birthday! Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. I don't love celebrating my birthday, but a couple of the members in the Spanish branch insisted on celebrating and it was a great experience. Huge shout out to Abuelita, for getting tres leches and getting my a stuffed birthday bear.

Saturday we had an awesome lesson with one of our friends called the Estrada family. We showed up and started talking with them and halfway through 3 of their friends walked in. We ended up answering a ton of their questions and teaching the restoration of the gospel. They said they wanted to keep talking with us so they will be joining in on our lessons with the family. It was a really cool visit with a ton of people who are very prepared to learn about the gospel.

Overall great week! Also transfer news came out last night and the days of the quad squad are officially ending. Elder Jenson and I will be staying in Marble Falls, but Elder Janeway will be heading off to Round Rock and Elder Hunt is officially heading to Paraguay this week. It's been a good run with these companions and I will always cherish the days of the Quad Sqaud. However Elder Jenson and I are excited to do good work!!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

 

 

Week 74: Snow in TX!

 Hey y'all!

This week was a CRAZY one. Lots of highlights and a whole ton of work we were able to get done. We were so busy this week and it went by so quickly. Here are the highlights:

-We had interviews with President on Tuesday! Love spending time with President Fox and learning from his example. We focused on our efforts to teach the Spanish community and he is happy with what we have been able to accomplish so far. We talked about the potential our area has and got pumped up to work hard.

-Earlier in the week we received a referral for a Spanish speaking man and we set up a time to meet with him. When we arrived we met him and his whole family and are now actively teaching them and they have serious interest in joining us at church one week. That was a huge miracle and it's all because we have made known the desires of our hearts to the Lord to be able to grow our Spanish group.

-Also we got SNOW!!!! Apparently for the first time in MANY years snow actually stuck to the ground in Marble Falls, Texas. It was A Christmas miracle to say the least. Of course we had to celebrate with some pics and playing around.

Those are the big highlights of the week! So much more going on but there's not enough room to write it all!!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

 

 

Week 73: Happy New Year!

 Hey y'all!

Happy new year! I can't believe 2021 is here, for me this year went by so fast, it feels like just yesterday I was listening to the fireworks on New Years Eve in Xalapa, Veracruz. This year has been filled with so many experiences and so many ups and downs but I feel like I have grown so much. In my journal entries from this time last year I didn't make too many predictions for the year, except for this comment:

"And just like that I begin my first full calendar year in the mission. In the year 2020 I will not step foot in the United States (I hope haha). Crazy stuff to think about". 

The me from one year ago had no idea about the crazy rollercoaster year I was about to take, spending my first 3 months in Mexico, followed by getting sent home during the pandemic and spending 3 months at home, before getting sent back out to spend 3 months in the Austin area, and finishing with 3 months in the Marble Falls area. While almost nothing this year went to plan, I learned so much, grew so much, and wouldn't trade this year or the experiences I gained for anything in the world.

I am so grateful to serve as a missionary especially during these crazy times. I have met so many wonderful people and learned so many things along the way. I am excited to continue to serve for the time I have left and bless more of Gods children!!

As a recap for this week we attended the birthday party of a little buddy of ours, Malaiki, we had some good lessons with some of our friends, we made some fun videos for our Facebook page, and saw some sweet longhorns! 

Love and miss you all!!

Elder Anderson

 

 

 

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