February 25, 2013

WOW things are speeding up every day! It does not slow down! A lot has been going on! This last week on Monday I found out that I was staying in Vestavia Hills again.   That makes 5 transfers that I have been here. I am still district leader with 13 missionaries in the district.   I am also training an 18 year old missionary that is a great missionary! He is from Benson,  Utah up by Logan and is a farmer,  so we have talked about the farm quite a bit.   He is a good kid and very humble. So tell me what my chances are of having 2 companions named Elder Johnson in a row.. Well that is his last name too haha.

  Tuesday we had zone conference that was great.   It is always good to be able to receive more training. We are using a finding tool where when we knock on the door and then we ask if we can leave the Saviors peace and blessing upon their home.   It has been working really well.  A lot of people are willing to pray with you. 

Wednesday we had transfers  and that’s when I received my new companion and also had to said goodbye to some of my good friends I have made on the mission! Its always sad to see them go home! But all missions have to come to an end!

 Friday we had district meeting and we discussed up dating the area book and how important it is to do that everyday. Could you imagine if Nephi thought, "I will just keep a few records!" We would miss out on some important items.   So our goal is to keep a good area book that will keep the work moving forward even after we get transferred and also we will be able to remember what we have already taught investigators  so we don’t keep teaching the same things over again.

On  Tuesday night I was able to interview fabiana for baptism.  He is the one I shared the story about us biking back and talking to her.    Her husband was also interviewed. Another interview was Logan and Emily.   That has been a really neat experience.   Logan is a good kid.   He is 14 or 15 and just had a change of heart one day. On Sunday we were able to witness fabiana be baptized in her native language  of portages and ramon be baptized in Spanish.   logan and emilys cousins flew in from Texas and baptized them.   He  was 16 years old.   So neat  to see! 

Heavenly Father loves his children so much! We had a really cool experience this week we were walking it with Elder Johnsons first day and we were on a main road.   We saw this man and his car was moving very slow,  he was going maybe 10 MPH on a 50 MPH road.   As we got closer, we saw he was unconscious so we were freaking out.   He was right by the off ramp of the highway and cars were flying past him.  He was drilling curbs and medians so we decided to call 911 and as we call he started to speed up.   His foot must of pushed on the gas! So we were running after the car while talking to 911 and he drilled a curb got some are and somehow stayed on the road we chased him and it seemed like a mile till he hit a curb and it stopped the car.   I wanted to go pull him out of the car but we saw a cop so we waved him over and he got fire trucks and ambulances there. Well,  we left after giving them the report and went on our way. The next day a cop talked to two other missionaries thinking it was us and told them he was having a diabetic attack and he was a former cop here in Birmingham so we felt good that we followed the spirit by calling and being able to help get help to him quickly.   Pretty exciting first day for my new companion! haha 

This weekend we will have a member of the Quorum of the Twelve; a member of the Presidency of the Seventy; a member of the Presiding Bishopric; and Elder Bluth of the Seventy with us. I'm excited about that.

 So hope yall have a great week! Thank you for all you do!

Love elder anderson

February 11, 2013

Dear Family and friends!

Elder Rice and I was on the bus this week and the bus driver asked us about the genealogy in our church and how it is done in our church.  So we  explain it to him for a bit and before we knew it,  we were shoved to the back of the bus with so many people getting on the bus.   We were hip to hip with people and every time we would go over a bump the bus would bottom out!  We just kept talking with people about the church and the gospel and got a few new potential investigators. We didn’t get to give the bus driver our information because of all the people and  we couldn’t get to him. The next day we got on the bus and it happened to be just him so this time we had a good 25 minute lesson with him on the bus we asked if we could come visit him and his family sometime,  but he said he didn’t like people just showing up and he didn’t like to give his number out so we told him we could meet him at the family history center sometime and gave him the info for it so hopefully something will happen there.  

 We were able to go out with Bishop May this week also and see some investigators and recent converts. It went really well.   He is a very great man! One of the missionary’s had to go home to take care of some medical stuff we were sad to see him leave.. We haven’t heard anything about transfers yet president told us the Lord wasn’t done yet.. so we will find out tonight around 9pm. We are receiving 17 Spanish sisters! Crazy!!!! 

The weather has been pretty crazy.  Lots of rain and hard wind.

 We got a referral this week that said I’m engaged to a member and want to be baptized.. haha it was great! We went and saw her and she came to church on Sunday and loved it.   We will be having a lesson with her tonight! Then I have a baptism interviewstonight and tomorrow to give!  I was very excited and humbled as I read the talk in the new Ensign by President Uchtdorf.  I loved this part and wanted to share. 

Sometimes we take upon ourselves too much credit or too much blame when it comes to others accepting the gospel. It’s important to remember that the Lord doesn’t expect us to do the converting. Conversion comes not through our words but through the heavenly ministrations of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes all it takes is one single phrase of our testimony or about an experience to set in motion the softening of a heart or the opening of a door that can lead others to experience sublime truths through the promptings of the Spirit.

I have been able to witness this. I have told you this story before,  but I would like to share it again. Elder Larsen and I were headed to a investigators home and we biked passed this lady and her little daughter.   We felt the need to turn around and go back and as we did we were able to set up an  appointment to meet with her, but when we went over she wasn’t home,  but her husband was and he said he spoke Spanish.   We looked down the street and  there were two Spanish missionary’s. They have been teaching Fabiana and Ramon for 3 months. He received his answer and they are being baptized next Sunday. I know that Heavenly Father loves his children so much and I’m so thankful for the Holy Ghost and the guidance he gave us that day and every day. Have a great week!

Love elder anderson 

Feb 4, 2013

Hey family and friends,
Well this has been a crazy but good week. They moved a missionary up from Montgomery, Elder Rice, and we were assigned to be trainers for two new visa waiters straight from the MTC. Today we moved into a different (bigger) apartment (in the same complex) to handle the four of us. We moved from a one bedroom, one bath to a two bedroom, two bath! This beats the four of us in one bedroom sharing one bathroom. No more cold showers! :) My new address is 48 Aspen Cove apt. 204 Homewood, Al  35209. Not sure how long this will be my address, we have transfers next week on the 13th. We will see what happens.
I'm training Elder Johnson from Pennsylvania he waiting for his visa and will serve in Brazil. He is a very quiet, soft spoken missionary and very humble. I'm very thankful to be serving with him. Elder Rice is from Montana. He and I get along great. He is very good at playing the piano, like probably the best I have seen. haha Elder Rice is training Elder Blocher from Tennessee. He too is waiting for his visa and will serve in Brazil. I am the only one that knows the area, so it has been a little crazy trying to get everyone up to speed.
We had zone training this week and the discussion was about how we can step up even more to be better missionaries. I still have a lot I can work on, but I'm very thankful for the love and patience Heavenly Father has for me.
So yesterday I got up to bear my testimony and shared the story about Rhett finding his phone in the snow. Not sure why, but it keep coming in my mind. Maybe someone needed to hear about an example of faith and prayer. Rhett has always been one that has faith in prayer, that's awesome!
We walked probably 10 miles in one day this week. Haha. It was pretty intense. It started to rain and was freezing! I don't want it to be summer, it is toooooo hot down here! But I don't want it to be cold! I wish I could control the weather.
This Sunday we will be having a "come and see Sunday". This is where they put out a sign on the front lawn of the church and people come and see what it is like to attend a Mormon church. Members invite friends and afterwards there is a tour of the church and a potluck dinner. Should be fun!
I didn't even know it was the Superbowl Sunday! Haha. I always love getting together to watch it with family and friends. I hope y'all had fun! I will be there to watch the next one with you.
I can't believe all the friends returning home from their missions. That crazy! Time is going by quick!
Well, enough for now. Thank you for all the prayers! Hope all is well.
Love y'all!
Elder Anderson

01/28/13

Family and Friends,

Well Elder Mauigoa is being transferred tomorrow to Montgomery. I’m pretty sad about it but it’s what the Lord wants not what we want.  I will be getting a brand new Visa missionary that will arrive tonight. I will pick him up along with two more missionaries tomorrow at a trainers meeting.  A little mid transfer, then on top of that, we are moving on the 4^th of Feb. with transfers on Feb. 13^th haha ADVENTURE TIME!

We got to go to Bessemer this week. Elder Mauigoa and I biked there from our apartment 20 mile bike ride. (luckily we got a ride back) I was so excited to see those that I haven’t seen in such a long time. Dominic was one of the first that was baptized when Elder Sawyer and I was there. He is now 19 and he told me he had finished the whole Book of Mormon! I was ecstatic! I asked him a couple questions about it and he was able to answer them all! He said that he loved reading it and that he was looking forward to starting over again. We also saw Nick, he is now 17. He is still going to church and staying active with the youth, but has not blessed the sacrament yet. But he told me he would this Sunday. We saw Ashley and Amber they are both doing well. Ashley’s mother won’t allow her to come to church until she is 18 but she is still reading from the Book of Mormon and attending activities as much as she can. Amber has been a little on and off lately, but we hope she will start attending again regularly. We had dinner with the Reeds. Sister Reed she is preparing to go to the temple and be sealed to Brother Reed for time and all eternity! They are planning to go to the temple in May. I’m very excited about that. She told me she has not missed church since Easter. She is doing great!

I’m looking forward to helping the new missionary get use to mission life. I will do all I can to help him and help us stay obedient to the mission rules. Book of Mormon reading is still going well. I’m very thankful for all those who took the time to write down the things that were going on back then. I am grateful for all the revelations they received, so that we could have the Book of Mormon today to help us in our everyday life.

Well I have been 18 months! That’s crazy! Elder Crainer said a couple of the sisters missionaries that we came out with wrote him and said they were home! Wow, hard to believe.

Things are going to be a little crazy for the next couple weeks! Please keep us in your prayers. Love y’all so much! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Anderson

1/22/13

Hello family and friends,

This was a good week, and the best part was it snowed! :) We didn’t get as much as I would have liked, and I didn’t have a snowboard strapped to my feet. I did get to make a snow angel and a snowman though!

The day it snowed I was on an exchange in Center Point and man y’all should have seen everyone. You would have thought the world was coming to an end. People were getting out of their cars, turning their hazard lights on and just leaving the cars in the road. Schools were letting the kids go early, people were sent home from work and everything was just shut down. It was insane! And the snow total… maybe 3 inches haha. It was great! The first thing everyone did was run to the store and by bread and milk. The stores were sold out in minutes. haha.

We have been doing a lot of recent convert work still just trying to help them all stay active and go to the temple. We have been working with the Green family trying to help them come closer to Christ. They came to church on Sunday and that was great!

I have enjoyed reading the Book of Mormon. I love how you always learn something new. It doesn’t matter how many times you read it there is always something new to be learned.

I’m going to Bessemer on Thursday. I’m pretty excited about that. It will be fun to go back for the day and see all the people there.

Love y’all, thanks for all you do for me!

Love, Elder Anderson

January 14, 2013

01/14/13

Family & Friends,

As you may know, we are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission. All the missionaries are reading the same six pages every morning. I love it! It’ great! I'm glad y’all have chosen to read it with us! Elder Mauigoa and I will be going throughout the day and find ourselves talking about the pages we read. We are trying to apply them to our missionary work. I have truly seen a huge change in my understanding and reading as I have applied it as a missionary and district leader. I prepared for district meeting for a week on 1 Nephi 8 and 11. I taught these chapters applying them to our district and the mission field. I was amazed at how well it all fit together. We have a great district that loves to participate and work together to help each other with the work. Wednesday we took the bus to the north side Birmingham. (was that ever a journey!) It took almost 2 hours on the bus to get there and as we arrived we were not getting some pretty nasty looks. We arrived at the house where our appointment was scheduled and the lady answered the door and said that it wasn’t a good time. :( Elder Mauigoa and I had a lot of time to talk and plan as we waited for the bus and took the long bus ride home to our next appointment. We have been doing a lot of sifting with our investigators and a lot of recent convert work.

Elder May, Elder Jensen and I had an amazing experience on Friday. We went to see a family that loves the church but they are holding back on baptism. We read Mosiah 18 and we likened it to their family. The waters of Mormon is the baptism font and Alma is us as missionary’s and so on.   We decided to kneel after reading verse 10 and we asked the mother to pray and ask Heavenly Father if she and her family should be baptized on Jan. 27^th. We invited her to say a silent prayer, pause and just think about it and when she was done and had received an answer, to then close the prayer. To which she agreed. Well, we all knelt down and waited for a couple minutes for her to close the prayer and we were all praying silently hoping she would get her answer. She said Amen and started telling us all the feeling she had received and was so excited. We will continue to work with her so she will continue to have those feeling. She has a neighbor that is not too fond of the church, but she said she won’t let him get to her anymore. Also on that same page Elder Bentley and I did that same thing with one of their investigators on Sunday in the chapel. We knelt there for 40 minutes until he closed his prayer.   Well, he is getting very close to getting his answer too. He is Spanish so I didn’t understand it all, but felt the spirit so strong! When Elder Larsen was here we biked passed this gentlemen’s wife and after passing her we were prompted to go back and talk with her. She told us she is half way through Alma in the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized but is waiting for her husband. Please pray for these families.

 Thank you for your love and support. Y’all stay warm! Sounds like it has been cold there. :)

Love, Elder Anderson