Week 92: Home Run

 Hey yall!

Great week in Round Rock Ward this week. Filled with some huge miracles and lots of learned lessons. I don't have a lot of time so here's the wrap up:

Wednesday I got to do exchanges with Elder Ross and serve in the Palm Valley Spanish Branch. We had a real fun member dinner and some great lessons. We taught the Andino kids about how they should behave during the sacrament. We talked about folding our arms and thinking about Jesus. Really good lesson and they understood it really well. Afterwards Oliver turned on Chicken Rave (look it up if you haven't seen it) and we were bumping. 

However the night didn't turn out exactly perfect. We left the visit to find that the other elders car had been towed because it was parked in a reserved spot. So the next morning we had to drive down to the mission office to pick it up from our vehicle coordinator and a $300 fine was paid. Definitely not ideal. But it was a good learning experience. 

Friday we had a really good MLC call where we talked a lot about reaching the youth/young adult age range. They are often the ones looking for direction and guidance and we need to learn how to find them. We talked about finding ways to engage the youth in our wards and invite them to invite their friends. Overall a very uplifting call. 

Saturday we had exchanges with the APs! I got to work with my dear friend Elder McAllister which I was stoked about. He goes home a week from this Wednesday and it was great to pick his brain and try and squeeze every little bit of knowledge he has out. He's a really good missionary and it's been a great opportunity to get to know him. We also talked about the needs of the zone and how we can help every missionary. Very productive exchange. 

A cool experience we had this week is when we were knocking on Part Member Family doors. We knocked this one where the lady we were looking for didn't live there, however another lady did who was also a member of the church. She said we could visit her and share a little bit. She hasn't been to church in a while and it is a miracle that we are getting to know her and bringing that light back in her life. The Lord puts people in our paths every day! 

Love and miss you all! 

Elder Anderson

Also President let us go to a Round Rock Express game today for P Day (minor league baseball) and the very first hit of the game was a home run and I caught it haha. Pic below to prove it. 

 

 

Week 91: Free Lunch

 

Hey yall!

Another week has gone by in the Round Rock Ward and we keep seeing miracles and having great experiences. Here are the highlights!!

Wednesday we had a fun lesson with Shell and Jaden. They are a mom and son duo who have been meeting with the missionaries for the last little bit. Jaden is 9 years old and was showing us all his cool parkour. We shared a thought and then had a prayer. He wanted to say a prayer too and had us repeat after him. He talked about giving the whole world a hug if his arms were big enough and all kinds of fun stuff. He also started like climbing around while he was saying the prayer. It was pretty legendary.

Wednesday night we also had a fun visit with the Andinos. They are a part member family with a ton of little kids who are all over the place. We did the thing to their son Oliver where we act like we turn him invisible and he loved it. Afterwards while we were teaching the lesson, their 3 year old kid named Iker comes in with a 2 gallon jug of apple juice and goes bottoms up and starts chugging it. We couldn't help but die laughing. There wasn't much left in it but he very impressively downed the rest. Then proceeded to ask his mom to open another one, which she declined.

Thursday I got to go on exchanges with a good buddy of mine Elder Keith! You might recognize Elder Keith, he shared the Hill Country Ward with me back last August and September. It was fun to catch up with him and see him do the work out in Pflugerville. For our comp study we listened to this amazing BYU Devotional called "Wrestling with Comparisons". If you have not seen it I invite you to go watch it because it's life changing. He talks all about the distructiveness of comparing ourselves and how we can overcome comparing. He says the quote, "The competition is not us VS others, but us VS our former selves". Comparing is something I've been trying to work on and that talk helped me a lot for sure.

Friday, Elder Park and I got to join the Paloma Lake District in their district council. They had it all the way out in Rockdale, so we got to take the 1 1/2 hour drive out to attend. Afterwards we stopped at a local BBQ place called Brett's. As soon as we got out of the car a man came up and handed us $60 to get some food. Super awesome. Then we waited in line, ordered, and then went to pay, and someone before us had already paid for us. So we got double paid for. It was crazy. Rockdale is a pretty magical place. 

So those were the highlights! Overall great week. So excited to keep working hard! 

Love and miss you all! 

Elder Anderson

 

 

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