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

Great Week.. January 14, 2013

-- Family & Friends..

This week was great!   I love reading the Book of Mormon as a mission it is so great! I'm glad yall are reading it with us also! Elder Mauigoa and I will be going throughout the day and will find ourselves talking about the pages we read and applying it 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 and applied it 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 out in the work. We had Brother Evans come and share his testimony and he has a strong one. Wednesday we took the bus to the north side Birmingham and was that ever a journey! It took almost 2 hours on the bus to get there and as we got there we were not getting some pretty nasty looks.  We got to the house  where our appointment was and the lady answered the door and said that it wasn’t a good time. So Elder Mauigoa and I  had a lot of time to talk and plan as we were waiting for the bus to come to get 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 are kind of holding back on baptism,  so we read Mosiah 18 and we likened it to their family.   The waters of Mormon was the baptism font and Alma was us as missionary’s and so on.   We decided to kneel after reading VS 10 and we asked the mother to  pray and ask Heavenly Father if her and her family should be baptized on Jan. 27^{th.  We told her}  to pause and just think about it and when you’re done and you have received your answer then end the prayer and she agreed to do it.   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,  so we are going to help her keep feeling those feelings. She has a neighbor that is not too fond of the church,  but she said she won’t let him get to her. Also on that same page Elder Bentley and I did that same thing with one of their investigators on Sunday in the chapel and we knelt there for 40 mins till he closed his prayer.   Well, he is getting very close to getting his answer also. He is Spanish so I didn’t understand it all,  but felt the spirit so strong! When Elder Larsen was here we biked passed his wife and after we bike for a second we felt the need to go back so we talked with her and she invited us over. She is half way through Alma in the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized but is waiting for her husband.

 I really enjoyed stake conference.  Elder Cook spoke and he mentioned a conversion story from the Alabama Birmingham Mission.  We were all excited to hear that.  

I get to go to Bessemer for the day sometime in the next couple weeks and will be going to Center Point Wednesday! So got some exchanges comin up!

 Well yall stay warm! Love yall..

Love Elder Anderson!

another great week

Family and friends! Hello! This week has been great we have been working with (Tj) ** an investigator that we met that is a cousin to a member in the ward we are teaching him and are working on having his cousin (Freddy) ****** baptize him as he continues to progress! We are also teaching (jasmine) ******* she has a baptism date set for this Sunday we are going to make sure that she is completely ready to make that convent though but she should be ready! We have been teaching her for a couple weeks now but she has been taught before. We have also been teaching (misty) ***** still and she was baptized on Sunday! We got to attend the temple on Wednesday! And I loved every minute of it I wish I could go to the temple everyday! They had a nativity scene set up outside I will send pictures. We were there with the entire Birmingham zone so it was packed but that’s the best way to have it! I got to see brother (einfelt) ****** from Bessemer also so that was great! J After the temple I went to the Birmingham area with elder Ingersoll from alpine ut and elder sablan from Seattle WA. It was great to be able to go with them for a couple days and work in their area they are two great missionaries! So while I was down there we were biking out of an apartment complex and a huge German Sheppard came running after us I thought I was a dead man! But I peddled as fast as I could on the bike! And started passing the other two! But he stopped after a bit probably got tired but man was that close! Friday we came back and had district meeting about obedience to the mission rules and how to begin teaching. I have seen a huge difference from when I have strived to be exact obedience and when I have just somewhat tried. We had our ward Christmas party Saturday morning at 8 just had breakfast and some skits! It was different than a dinner but still worked out. Had some bad weather this weekend just rain and wind nothing too bad and the tornado last week was about 8 miles from us so we are fine J misty’s ***** baptism was great we had a less active we have been working with baptize her and they were both stoked! So hope we can get him on a mission and hope the rest of misty ****** family will come around! The library is closing at 6 tonight so we have to be off at 530 so please don’t use names for the blog! J And sorry we probably won’t get to e mail back and forth! What time we are skyping let me know! Love yall! And dad keep checking my card cuz I have been spending a little money!

Elder Anderson!

Ps thank you for all the Christmas cards and pkgs I have been getting I hope to be getting more! Haha and happy b day aunt tam!!!!

busy week

Friends and Family, 

 This week has been pretty good.   We have a Baptism coming up this weekend,  her name is Misty she has been being taught for about a month now and she loves Jesus!  She is great.  We are also working with her daughter, but she does not have a baptism date yet.   She is 14 and her name is Dechantene. We  have been teaching another investigater named Jammine and she  also has a baptsim date for Dec. 23rd!  We are keeping busy and it is great.  

 This last week we got to help out with the tree lot again and after we helped out they let us pick our own tree! :) its almost 8 feet tall in our lil 1 bedroom apt! but it looks great! :) i don't have my camera so I will send pics next week!  We get to go to the temple on Wednesday and I am always excited for that!  Its always so fun to be able to go there and feel  peace! 

 We had a conference call a couple nights ago about Mary the mother of Jesus and man was it good! i wish yall could just call in and listen! Sounds like yall had fun this weekend! We have our ward Chrsitmas party this Saturday.   They are doing it in the morning as well so it will be different. Man i just feel like i never have enough time to write everything!

 I hope yall have a great week! i love yall so much!
Elder Anderson!

Turkey bowl winners. Nov 26, 2012

Family and friends, I hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It's a little different down here in the south for Thanksgiving but still the same meaning! Just a lot more corn bread! But hey I'm not complaining about that! We had Thanksgiving at our bishop's house and also the Melby's, a member in our ward. They are both very great cooks! The food was great!  We got to play in the turkey bowl again this year. I'm proud to say I'm 2 and 0 on my mission. I had the winning interception in the championship game! I should have been a receiver in high school. haha I had 7 touch downs! I had lots of fun but was very sore the next couple days, but it was well worth it! My new companion is Elder Tuailemafu -Mauigoa (Tawaee lema foa maui goa) haha took a while to get it down! He is a great missionary and we are excited to work together to find, teach, and baptize. I'm still the district leader for our district of 10 missionaries. We are having a Christmas luncheon at the mission home this Wednesday. Sister Holzapfel is so nice and good to us! That's a lot of cooking! But it should be great! We found some new investigators. One family is from Ghana and said we could come back Wednesday along with a man that just moved here for schooling. So we will see and update y'all next week on how it goes! Crazy to hear all the people getting home off their missions! Well better send this so I can send pictures! We bought a Christmas tree today!
I love y'all.
Elder Anderson

Halloween Party

So this week was a long one! My companion ended up being sick and we had to be in the house for 4 days!!!!! Ah, I thought we were going to die. We were going crazy! Ha but it’s all good and he is getting better and somehow our prayers worked and I'm not getting sick! So that’s great. I decided I was going to try to finish the Book of Mormon in one day and guess what!!! I got to 2 Nephi. Man was I wrong. That was way more than I thought! But I did learn things that I didn’t know from reading it last time. I always learn something new! Being stuck in a house on a mission is like being forced to watch a BYU game! Haha just messin, but for real it is not fun! We tried to make it fun but you can only do so much in a one bedroom apartment! We had the ward Halloween party here and did trunk or treat. It was kinda like they do it in Howell, but I like how our ward does the haunted house! There is a street here that they call Halloween Street and I guess there were thousands of people go there on Halloween! We didn’t get to see it, but heard it was pretty great! We have zone conference this Wednesday so that should be good.  President Holzapfel will be going over some information that he received in Florida last week so I'm excited about that. Sunday I bore my testimony and then there were two girls under the age of 8 that got up and bore their testimonies. They were so great! They said they can’t wait to be baptized and go on missions! They have a brother that’s out on a mission right now. They did a great job!

Well sorry for the lame update! 

Love y’all

Elder Anderson