Week 86: Easter Sunday + Conference

 Hey y'all!

What a wonderful Easter weekend! This was an amazing General Conference with so many great messages. I loved the Sunday Morning session, filled with so many incredible speakers from all around the world. It truly reminded me how Christ's gospel is universal, regardless culture, language or any other type of outward factor. 

One talk I specifically liked was Chi Hong (Sam) Wong's talk about the wise man and the foolish man. He made the comment that both the wise man and the foolish man want a happy family, a strong home and a joy-filled life. They both build nice houses. They are both faced with the same outer storms and difficulties. The only difference is the foundation of which they build, and the outcome for the two is drastically different. Because the foolish man didn't build his life on a strong foundation, he fell, and now has to build it back up. We build our foundation on Christ not because we have to, or because we are told to, or because we are worried about what people say if we don't. We build our foundation on Christ because it is the smartest thing to do if we want a happy family, a strong home and joy-filled life. Centering our life around Christ is the most intelligent decision we can make to receive the blessings we so greatly desire. I have gained such a strong testimony of that on my mission as I see the difference in those who are willing to let God prevail in their lives and those who arent. The difference is incredible.

Outside of General Conference we also had a ton going on! On Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Anderson in the Lakeline Spanish branch. He's a good friend and it was fun to spend the day as two Elder Andersons. I always learn so much from exchanges and Wednesday was no different.

Thursday was Zone Conference! Elder Frank and I got to prepare a training on Using the Scriptures which went well. We did some fun role plays and learned a ton. President made some great comments regarding our focus on being dignified and obedient, and compared the importance of dignifying our language to the story of Naman in the bible. Some commandments are so easy to follow yet reap such great blessings.

Sunday morning we had a little Easter Sunrise service with the Spanish Group on the hill. It was a powerful little experience and some great testimonies were shared. A ton of the friends we are teaching got to come too which was a cool experience to see them continue to strengthen relationships with our members.

Overall we had such a great week! This Sunday we find out transfers and to say I'm stressed is an UNDERSTATEMENT. I don't want to leave Marble Falls whatsoever, but I know I may be due for a change. Hopefully ill be able to continue my time here but we will see what God's will for me is.

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

 

 

Week 85: Easter Season and English Classes

 

Hey y'all!

And Happy almost Easter and General Conference weekend! I love this time of year so very much when we can all focus so much time on Jesus Christ. Its so important to remember the sacrifice he made for us AND especially how he was resurrected for us so that we can also live again one day. It's awesome that now through social media we can spread that message of hope and joy with so much of the world. If you haven't checked out the videos the church has been doing for this Easter season, please give it a watch, you won't regret it :)

As for the update this week, we had a really good week with all of our friends, teaching and serving in any way we can. Our friends continue to progress nicely and we made some good steps this week. We hope they can all attend General Conference next weekend and be able to feel the spirit as they listen to the voice of the Lord through His divinely appointed Prophet and apostles.

We also had a good amount of service opportunities this week. I got to mow with a riding lawn mower for the second week in a row which was a good feeling. We helped out at our favorite food bank like always and also had another great English Class. New people continue to come each week and it's such a great opportunity to meet people. I hope they learn English in our class too haha, we really try out best.

That's basically it!! Watch General Conference this weekend!!! Love and miss you all so much!

Elder Anderson 

 

 

Week 84: #StartingToday

 Hey y'all!

Hope y'all had a wonderful week. We continue to work hard here in Marble Falls and are being so very blessed for it. Here's a recap of some of the things we were able to do this week:

A huge miracle from this past week is that David, the father of our little buddies Jeancarlos and Ostin, was released from prison, where he spent the last 10 months for something he was falsley accused of. He was on the verge of getting sent back to Honduras multiple times but in the end God worked His miracles and David got to stay with his boys. We got to know David a little bit this week and can see the strong faith in God he has and how much he trusts Him. We had a really powerful lesson on Wednesday with him where he opened up to us and shared some of his experiences. We were able to testify of God's power and that we can overcome trials through Christ's Atonement.

As many of you might know, the church recently put out a video preparing us for the Easter season with the theme #StartingToday. It's such a simple yet powerful message about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the power that it has to heal and better us through the gift of repentance. If you haven't checked out this video yet I recommend you watch it. We have been using this video with many of our friends this past week and we had some great discussions. We got to share this message with our friends the Gayossos, and the spirit was so present during the whole lesson. After watching the video we invited them to reflect on something they could do starting today to come closer to Jesus Christ, and then invited them to pray about it that night, telling the Lord what it is they wish to do. I invite all of you to do the same thing, as in this process the Lord will guide and strengthen you to become better and hopefully become more like Him.

Other than that our week was filled with some great service opportunities, helping people move, yard work, gardening you name it. We stay plenty busy here in Marble Falls and we don't even have the hours in the day to get done everything we'd like to. However I'm enjoying every minute of it! 

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

 

 

Week 83: Service +

 Hey y'all!!

This week was another great one full of miracles!! We have been working hard and have been seeing so many blessings. Here are the highlights!

Tuesday we did service for a friend of ours named Natalie moving furniture. She has an antique shop that flooded due to some burst pipes in the aftermath of the storm so we helped her move everything out and then rip up the carpets. They really appreciated our work and we will be back to help move everything back in once it's ready.

Tuesday night we also had an awesome visit with the newest members of the Marble Falls Ward, Alejandro and Aline. We did a family night with them and some of the other ward members. They told a little bit about their conversion and gave real touching testimony about the power of prayer and that they know the church is true. The spirit was so strong and they are already such strong members! Definitely a faith building experience for sure.

Wednesday we helped our dear Abuelita move some stuff from her old house to her new one. She was so appreciative of us and it was fun spending time with her. We also got to know better her good friend Betty, who isn't a member of the church. Wednesday night we also went over to Maximo's, a recent convert as of a couple months and played some soccer with him.

Thursday our English class was one of the best we've had so far, lots of people came and we had a lot of good interaction. Afterwards many stayed for our spiritual thought and loved it. One man, named Marlon, came up and thanked us for the class and told us about his faith in Christ. We asked him if we could come over sometime and talk about Christ and he said he'd like that. So we are excited about that.

Friday was MLC! Such a great conference. President and Sister Fox had so many great things to say and we focused a lot on the culture of the mission, specifically on things like using good language and striving towards higher levels of obedience. President Fox has a way about motivating us to be better and improve every day and I always leave our conferences hopeful and determined. Hopefully we can make big changes in the mission in order to help more of His children!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

 

 

Week 82: 3 Baptisms

 Hey y'all!

We had another busy week here in Marble Falls. On Wednesday we took Elder Ure down to Austin to head to his new area which was sad. He was a good part of our team here in Marble Falls and will definitely be missed. It was good though seeing some of my favorite missionaries in the world when we went to drop him off. 

This week, still dealing with the aftermath of the storm, we did a lot of service for the community. A lot of our service dealt with distributing food or cutting down broken or dead trees. We got some good help from some local ward members in those projects as well and they were all great opportunities to meet people. 

We also had a very exciting weekend in our District as 3 people were baptized! On Saturday, the Llano branch had a baptism of a little girl named Brihn. We were able to attend the service and it was fun to see the excitement on her face. And on Sunday we had a pleasure to see our good friends Alejandro and Aline get baptized into our Spanish group. The spirit was so incredibly strong throughout the whole meeting and they both got teared up at different points throughout the service. We also got to have some past missionaries who had helped teach them attend, as well as join through zoom. It was a big Marble Falls reunion and we were all so happy to see them make the decision to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized.

And that was the week! This week we have a lot of super exciting things lined up as well and are going to stay super busy as always!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

 

 

Week 81: Post Storm

 Hey y'all! 

This week was a great week to get back into the swing of things after the crazy week we had with the Winter Storm and everything. We spent a good amount of time catching up with some of our friends, as well as giving service to those affected by the storm. Here are some of the highlights:

-Tuesday we spent some time cleaning up the church building after the pipe bursts. We ripped up the carpet wall and took some insulation out of the ceiling that was sopping wet. The Clerk's Office and the Relief Society Room now look pretty messed up but the good thing was that we were able to do enough to get ourselves ready for in person church this last week. We first thought it was going to be a couple months before we could get back into the building, so it was a blessing that we were able to come back and meet so quickly. 

-Wednesday we had Zone Conference! President and Sister Fox shared some great insights with us and we learned so much. We focused on the importance of reaching out to our referrals, those who want to meet with us and have filled out a form for us to come and meet. Elder Frank and I had the opportunity to give a training with the Sister Training Leaders on planning and goal setting and it went well. Overall great experience. 

-We got English class back up and going this week after two weeks in a row have been canceled due to the weather. A few new people came which was exciting and several people stayed to hear our spiritual thought afterward. 

-Friday we welcomed the new Senior couple who will be serving with us, Elder and Sister Lofgran! They are from St George, Utah and are super excited to be up here working with us. We got the apartment all cleaned up for them and then showed them around the area a little bit. They will be a huge addition as we look to add more and more support to the wonderful Marble Falls Ward!

Overall a great week! Transfer news came out last night, Elder Jenson and I will be staying together for another transfer here in Marble Falls!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

 

 

Week 80: Burst Pipes and Rolling Blackouts

 Hey y'all!!

As y'all may have heard. This was a crazy week in the great state of Texas. We had record low numbers temperature-wise, and it did some pretty serious damage to the state. We also got lots of snow and ice, which kept us locked in for a few days. I don't think any of us out here were prepared for these incredibly cold days and it definitely showed. Here's a recap of some of the things that went down this week. 

Last Monday morning we woke up without power. Because of problems caused by the ice and an overwhelming need for electricity, the whole state was doing rolling blackouts, which basically meant on for a few hours, off for a few hours. This went on from Monday until about Thursday. It wasn't too big of an inconvenience, expect for when you'd be showering and all of a sudden it's pitch black. But we worked around it.

A huge problem in the state though were pipes bursting. Because they had never dealt with such freezing temperatures many of the pipes were not protected enough and many of them broke. Because of that our water got shut off for a little bit but we filled up our bathtubs and did the necessary preparations.

On Wednesday we got permission from our president to go and do some proselyting at our church building. However when we got there the alarm was going off, and the building as flooded. Apparently a fire sprinkler line broke and started flooding into some of the rooms. Luckily we caught it though before serious damages were made. We then left and had some other tasks to do. However at 7 or so at night my companion and I got the feeling to return to our church building to see if everything was alright. When we got there, we unfortunately saw more flooding, this time right over one of the offices onto a ton of technology, a huge fire hazard. Because we had already shut off the emergency system no one else would have come and no one else was planning on entering the building. I know that feeling to go back to the church was from God so that we could catch the burst before any serious damage was done to the church.

Well those are some of the many events that happened over this last week! We also spent some time shoveling snow and looking for ways to help out in the community. There are lots of people still struggling and we want to help them.

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson