a service week

Hi Ya'll,

So I forgot my planner, so it is going to be hard to get all the details of my week. We fished on prep day. Tuesday we had our Preach My Gospel class. Wednesday we had ward cor and went to seminary. Thursday we had our weekly planning meeting. Then at night on Thursday, we went to Amber's house and taught her family. Her step dad thinks that it is just by the grace of God that we are saved and that it has nothing to do with our works. I didn't want to bash, so I went home and called Elder York and found a ton of scriptures in the Bible that say if you just accept Jesus as your Savior, you are saved.. so to me, it is pretty much a cop out for those who don't want to do it the right way. I then found some more scriptures that talk about doing works like 2 Nephi 31 so we will have a lot to talked about next time we go over there. Friday we went to lunch with the Hepworth’s at the Cracker Barrel, which was really fun. We then went out tracting, but with not much luck. That night we went to the Campbell's with Craton and taught Ashley a lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ and ate a ton of shrimp. The lesson went good. She asked the question why is baptism so different in our church than other churches. I told her there were 2 parts in our church. The baptism and also the confirmation to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. I told her that baptism was pointless without the confirmation, and it really upset her. I didn't mean to say it that way, so I just sat there for a minute and said, let me share a scripture with you not having any idea what I was going to share. So I said, in Acts, I flipped it open to Acts and nothing was highlighted, but I read a scripture where Peter asks these people, Have you received the Holy Ghost? and they say no and he basically tells them that the baptism was pointless. It was so crazy how it all happened. When Craton, Elder Epperson and I got in the car, they both asked me how I pulled that off. As soon as we got home, I grabbed my other scriptures that I always mark up and turned to the scripture that I read to Ashley and it wasn't even marked in that book. I know that the Holy Ghost helped me in that situation because I don't think I have ever read that scripture before in my life.

Saturday we went and help the Hepworth’s lay cement in their basement. This is going to sound like a lie, but it is not. We mixed and laid 3,200 lbs. of cements. It was a lot of work, but worth it. Brother Hepworth's dad was there to help us out, it looks really good. Then we cut our lawn for Brother Stacey (he owns our house). Then Sunday was a really long day. I had a really bad headache, but we went to Sister Ali's and had dinner after church, then we came home and studied.

It was a pretty busy week..

Love you all.. Elder Anderson

ANOTHER GREAT WEEK

It was another great week this week.

We taught Johndarius on Tuesday to get him ready for his baptism on Saturday. He asked me and Elder Sawyer to confirm him. I don't think he understood that only one could do it, so I told Elder Sawyer that he could do it... We then had our PMG class and was teaching about the comparisons of the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Amber, Ashley and Erin came after the class and we had another amazing lesson on the Restoration. Erin’s dad, brother Campbell was there to help some and the spirit was so strong. Then on Wednesday we had a meeting with Brother and Sister Callister (Elder Tad Callisters brother) who are teaching all the missionaries to be master teachers. I am a little nervous to go to that because we are asked to use conference language. That means we are not suppose too use words like cool, awesome, sick, or sweet. I am really trying to work on that. They also want us to memorize one scripture a day. It is really hard, but I am trying hard.

Wednesday, we went to the ward and played dodgeball with the young men for their activity, and then had another great lesson teaching Amber. She moved up her date for her baptism from the 24th of March, to the 10th. She also asked me to baptize her. I am really excited about that. We are still working on her family and hope they will come around.

Thursday we went to Oak Mountain for a district meeting. I taught about revelation through prayer and how to use it for our advantage. Then a couple of the older youth there took us out for a BBQ dinner. The one youth said he now wanted to go on a mission after getting to know us. I hope he does. During church on Sunday and bore his testimony and said that he really wanted to go on a mission and it was because of us. It was a tender moment for me as I was thinking of what my patriarchal blessing says about helping out here. We try to be good examples to the youth here. Then Lorenzo was interviewed that night for his baptism.

Friday was really bad weather and we had several conference calls and texts to make sure we were prepared for what was coming. We continued to tract as much as we could. We felt safe and knew we were protected. The schools were let out early that day and the Ali's invited us over for dinner that night and also to teach Amber another lesson. Sister Ali cooked Cafe Rio that night (she got the recipe from mom) it was so good. We had 50 cent piece hail there, funnel clouds (they didn't touch the ground) and lightening. I decided the hail was the closest thing to snow I would see for 2 years.

Elder York and Elder Sawyer came to our house to sleep that night and it was crazy. Every 20 seconds our house would completely light up from the lightening and then the loud bang of thunder, but all is good because it didn't get that close to us this time.

Then Saturday morning we went to the church and filled up the font for Lorenzo's baptism. His brother Dominic baptized him and it was so sweet. Lorenzo asked me to confirm him, but I asked him if it would be okay if Creighton (a boy in the ward that is getting ready to leave for his mission) could do it, and he agreed. It was great. I did bare my testimony and right after I sat down, my boy Dominic got up to bare his.. He is such a stud.. We will have Johndarius and Ambers baptism this coming Saturday. Things are going so good.

Thank you for all you do for me and for all the support.

Love to ya'll... Elder Anderson