Week 90: Round Rock Donut Challenge

 Hey yall!!

We had a super busy week this week serving in the Round Rock Ward. All kinds of different activities kept us super busy and made the week fly by. Here are the highlights from the week:

Tuesday we helped out at the Bishops storehouse. The Bishop Storehouse is something the church has all around the world to provide groceries for people who may be struggling. It's a really cool place that benefits a ton of people. We helped gather orders for people and bring it out to their car. It was a cool opportunity to help those who needed some type of support.

Wednesday we had Zone Conference! As always, it was an amazing conference and I learned a ton. We focused mainly on faith, diligence and following the spirit. Elder Park and I got to give a training on diligence which went pretty well. We have a really strong zone so we got plenty of insights.

Friday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Meyer out in the Paloma Lake area. Elder Meyer is our missions only ASL missionary, so it was cool to see him do a little bit of his ASL. He's a good missionary and it was cool to be able to learn a little bit from his example. We did some finding, some studies and reached out to some people. Something I really liked about Elder Meyer is that he was super prayerful, never missing an opportunity to ask the Lord or seek His guidance. That was a great example for me as too often I tend to forget that aspect.

Overall great week! We also had some fun lessons, did a couple fun service projects, and ate some yummy food! Also, last Monday I did the Round Rock Donut challenge, which is a gigantic donut that you have to eat as fast as possible. I beat the other missionaries participating (obviously) and came in with a time of 6:30. Just wanted to let y'all know. 

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

 

 

Week 89: MLC & Exchanges

 Hey y'all! A solid week here in Round Rock! We had a pretty good variety of activities and stayed plenty busy. Here's the recap:

Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Faulstick out in Taylor! It's a super cool area kind of out aways with some pretty nice towns. We did some service for this lady taking out her bamboo (and I kinda broke her old shovel). We then had a great dinner and a follow up lesson with a recent convert in the area. It's always great to see the growing faith of some of the younger members of the church. Elder Faulstick is also our zones current social media specialist, so I was able to give some of my knowledge and experience from my time as SMS and we also talked about some of the things we can start doing to start growing out FB Page. Overall it was a good, productive exchange.

Wednesday we had a fun lesson with an older lady named Catherine. She loves talking with the missionaries and sharing a little bit about God's word. We talked a little bit about what she's learned with the previous missionaries and got to know her. She likes picking a topic to study every time so we picked love for this next visit. She really liked that. Unfortunately she will be gone until the end of May so that's a bummer. We will try our best to stay in touch with her.

Friday we had MLC!! Like always, it was a great conference. So many great thoughts were shared and I left very ready to tackle these next couple months. President shared this really awesome thought about helping missionaries reach their potentional in relation to an African Elephant. He said that if there were an African elephant in the room, it would probably take us a ton of people to lift it and take it from one side to the other (he did some math and I think he came up with like 40 people). He said we could use 40 people, or we could use just one person to drop a peanut on the other side, and the elephant will go over itself. He said in order to help others reach their potential we could push, pull or drag them with so much effort, or we could give them something that will cause them to walk over themselves. Another elder also shared this quote that I thought was cool. He said, "True leadership is expressing so clearly someone's worth and potential that they begin to see it in themselves". So many great thoughts at MLC!

So those were the highlights, we have another fun week coming up so we will see what comes our way!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

 

 

Week 88: First Week in Round Rock

 Hey y'all!

First week here in the Round Rock Ward is done! Definitely not the easiest week, entering an area as two new missionaries has more than it's fair share of obstacles but we are pushing through and searching for those miracles. Here are some of the highlights of this week.

Tuesday I said bye to all of my dear friends from Marble Falls. After 7 months in an area you get pretty close with a lot of people and that definitely was the case. To think that I spent over half a year with all of my friends out here is almost unbelievable, but saying goodbye definitely showed how long we had been together.

Wednesday we headed down to Austin for transfers. Elder Okelberry and I met up and were picked up by the other elders in our apartment. The next couple days we spent a lot of time reaching out to members and seeing if we could get to know them. So far we have met some amazing members who are eager to help us in the work. They love the missionaries and are looking for any way to help and so we are going to use them!

Also, we decided to make a theme for this transfer in the Round Rock East Zone called Moving Mighty Mountains (MMM) with faith. We are trying to follow in President Nelson's example and work on increasing our faith, which should lead to us having more success finding and teaching, as well as achieving our personal goals. We invited the zone to choose one of the 5 things President Nelson talked about in order to increase their faith. We hope this will bring great blessings to the powerful Round Rock East Zone.

Overall good first week in Round Rock! Looking forward to many, many more!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

 

 

Week 87: Transfer to Round Rock

 Hey y'all!!

So I guess I'll just get this out of the way first. Transfer news came out last night and despite my best efforts and prayers I have been transfered out of Marble Falls. To say I'm sad is an understatement, I have grown to love this area so much and leaving will not be easy. I am incredibly grateful for all of the experiences I had and the people I met here. I will be transfered to the Round Rock Ward, in the Round Rock East Stake. I will be coming there with an Elder Okleberry, who has similar amount of time as me in the mission field. We will be entering in Whitewash (two elders new to the area) which will make things interesting. I am looking forward to the opportunity to serve in Round Rock and can't wait to get started. I will miss Marble Falls but I know there is a lot of good waiting for me in my next area. I am also super excited for Elder Jenson, who will be training here in Marble Falls. They will take great care of the area and achieve great things. 

To give a recap on the week, we were BUSY!!! Lots of great things going on and lots of progress made. I had the opportunity to go on two sets of exchanges this week. One with the Llano elders, and another with the assistants. On Wednesday I went out to Llano, and spent the day with Elder Hunter. We did a ton of service, visited some Members and stayed busy. Out in Llano they have one of the oldest populations in the states, so all the members treat the missionaries like their grandchildren, and they get pretty spoiled. I think I gained at least 5 pounds from all the snacks and food they gave us.

On Friday Elder Jenson and I got to be joined by one of the APs, Elder Dimond, out here in Marble Falls. We had a good, productive day, and learned a lot. Elder Dimond is a really good example of obedience and consecration, and I picked many things from his example that I hope to apply to my own missionary service.

Other than that we did our normal missionary things, lots of service, teaching and finding those who are willing to let God prevail. The mission is a journey and in every step along the way I have learned so many valuable things for my life. I can't wait to see what this next step has in store! 

Love and miss you all!

Elder Anderson

 

 

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