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

Hey Family,

This past week was a stressful and good week. It started off last Monday as we helped a member in our ward build a new shed in his back yard because his last one was taken away in last year’s April tornado. Then we went to a sisters house to help her with her yard and also to burn ditches. It was exciting, but not as fun and exciting as doing it with Grandpa Nessen on the back of the 4 wheeler. We then had to burn a huge pile of sticks and leaves. Then we quickly went back and got cleaned up to go and teach a Preach My Gospel class at the church. Erin’s friend Amber came, which was really good.

Thursday might have been one of the best days of my mission so far. We worked on our weekly planning, then I interview 2 kids in Oak Mountain to be baptized. Then Amber's mom invited us to their house. We were so excited, but so nervous because we had not met her step dad yet and of course he is Baptist. When we got there, we just started talking for a bit. We then started teaching lesson 2 about the plan of salvation, then a little out of lesson 1 about the restoration. I felt like I was all over the place, and not meaning to say it out loud, but I said "man I am all over the place" and my companion quickly said, "ya you are", so I sat there for a few seconds, and felt the Holy Ghost just take over. I bore my testimony on how much I love my family and that I know that I can be with them forever because my Savoir Jesus Christ loves me along with my Heavenly Father. I then asked him if he wants to be with his family forever, and he said yes. I then felt the prompting not to talked about the gospel, but just be a friend. When it was time to go, he asked when he could see us again. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he asked us to come back and he would cook us a mean steak.. That was so Sweet!!.. He then walked us out to the car and told us that he supports Amber 100% to do what she wants to do. On Friday, we were having the big BBQ and Amber's family said they were not going to be able to make it because of work, but Heavenly Father is amazing and they came at the last minute.

The BBQ was a huge success. There were 14 missionaries there and we had a full house. We put up 28 tables with 9 chairs at each table and filled them all! It was so amazing!

Sunday came around and Amber and her brother came to church. We taught the Sunday School class and asked Amber if she was ready to be baptized and she said yes.. So March 24th we will baptize her. She has been reading the Book of Mormon that you sent me with Dad's testimony in it. I know that Heavenly Father is helping us here in Bessemer. We will baptize Lorenzo this Saturday, then Johndaris and Tawana on the 10th of March then Amber on the 24th.

Things are going so good, I am praying I will stay in this area for the next transfer coming up on March 14^th.

Thank you so much for all your love and support..

Love yall

Elder Anderson

Feb. 13, 2012

Hey ya'll

This week has been pretty busy. We have been doing a lot of tracting, we went into a no soliciting neighborhood, (we really weren't selling anything) and we went to 15 different houses and knocked on their doors. All of the people were Baptist, but were really nice to us, until the last house. This guys answered the door and started yelling at us and telling us that he was going to call the cops on us, so I nicely handed him a picture of Jesus and told him that Jesus loved him. Well that made him even madder and he ran into his house still yelling and screaming at us, so we quickly jumped in our car and drove to the street over where our mission leaders live. The guy was so mad he got into his truck and was trying to find us. It was kind of scary.

We did some service this week and helped out on a farm. It was pretty fun, we dug ditches for most of the day, then burned leaves and even got to feed the animals, so it was all good.

We are teaching a whole family that one of our members brought to church, so that is big. We are still teaching a girl name Tawana so hopefully things will go well.

We are having a Young men blitz on Saturday with 26 missionaries and all the youth in the stake here in Bessemer. I hope it goes well. We have been planning it for a while.

Thank you for all you do and I hope you have a good week.

Love

Elder Anderson

Hi ya'll

Wow, this week has been a handful. Last Saturday, President Holzapfel told me and Elder Sawyer we were going to be split up. He told me I would be staying in the Bessemer area and getting a new companion. On Tuesday I had a feeling that it may be more than just having a new companion. When we reported Wednesday for transfers, I was called to be a district leader and trainer. As a district leader, I am responsible for 10 missionaries. In my group are two sister missionaries, two senior couples and four elders (including me and my new companion). As a district leader, I am to hold weekly training meetings, (teaching from Preach My Gospel), interview new investigators regarding baptism, and lots of phone calls reporting to the zone leaders. I will be on my knees a lot asking Heavenly Father for help, but that is ok with me. President Holzapfel also assigned me to be a trainer. My new companion has only been in the mission field for six weeks. He is 21 years old and is from West Valley. His name is Elder Epperson. We don't have too much in common, he is a ballroom dancer. He does like to skateboard and wakeboard.

The weather here has been pretty warm, right now it is in the 70's. So I am keeping warm.

We have no new investigators that we are working with, but we are looking and working hard with the ward. We are trying to set up a BBQ open house on the 24th at the ward. It is harder than I thought it would be, but we are trying to have entertainment, food and cupcake wars. We are hoping for a good turnout.

Tell the Smarts that my thoughts and prayers are with their family.

Just know that I am working hard and things are good. I can do hard things.

Is there anything I can do for any of you?

Always love you and Roll Tide ;)

Elder Anderson