Letter # 26

Hey Family!

Papa estoy animado que le gusta leer me cartas en espanol, yo debe escribir todo en espanol entonces puedo tener mas practica en eso. Me companero me dijo que en nuestro lecciones estoy mejorando en hablando con fluencia y claridad. Estoy agradecido por me Padre Celestial que siempre bendice me en me idioma y en su obra. "Dad, I am excited that you like to read my letters in Spanish. I should write all in Spanish; then I can have more practice in that.  My companion told me that in our lessons I am getting better at talking with fluency and clarity.  I am grateful for my Heavenly Father who He always blesses me in my language and in His work."

To be honest, I  like Spanish way more then English.  There are some things I like more in English; like it is very descriptive and Spanish is not very descriptive at all. Sometimes I think they are just very lazy! :p

I hope you have fun at family's house for thanksgiving, I am getting very excited for mine here cause we are going to the Menendez house. They will be making Floutas and some other Spanish specialty's! I love Spanish food, I just can't get enough! When there is something new to try I am so excited, like yesterday I tried persimmon's for the fist time. (even though we have one in our back yard) I learned that I really like Jacotes rojo, (dad you will like this) its like a plum but only grown in El Salvador. I love eating it, the people tell me the best is to suck on the pit of it, and they are right! It is delightful!! Yesterday we had pasole which i did not like the first 3 times I tried it, but yesterday it was really good! I don't know what it is but it was really good!!!!

The Menedez family has 3 kids, and they are the coolest! One lives a mile away from the parents and he is super cool. I talked about how I saw this sweet hammock and I wanted a special one from outside of this country. He said he has some of the ones that I wanted that his friend dropped at his house awhile ago. He said that he doesn't want it so he said I can have it! Now I am going to get a super sweet hammock! (Yes Dad, I will send it home and you can use. Or whoever has room for it to use they can borrow it!) The members here are the nicest, they always ask if there is anything we need or want and they will give it to us. That is one of the thing that I love about the Hispanic culture, they are always nice and willing to do anything for others. They members are especially helpful to missionaries. :p

Nothing big has happened this week, but I have seen some big changes in our branch. We are bringing a lot of "Less Actives" back to strengthen the ward and then they get their friends to come to the church! The best way for missionary work is through the members! :)

I love y'all and y'all are always in my prayers!

P.S. This picture was really cool even though they aren't doing good this season :P

Love Elder Andersen 

Preston Sent me other pictures too...

 I asked for a sunset picture ~ Isn't this beautiful!? He said the camera just does not do it justice!

This was the early Thanksgiving Missionary Meal.

Letter # 25

Hey Family,

This last week has been very good -- not too good in lessons and investigators, but spiritual has been amazing!

We had zone conference and we do many role plays and we learn so much stuff. One of my favorite things to say in an OYM (open your mouth, talk to everyone that you come in contact with) [yo siempre digo, "somos representantes de Jesucristo."] Because normally we are accustomed to: ["somos misioneros de la iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias." Para me, el Espiritu Santo puede testificar mas fuerte si empiezo con, "somos representantes" o "Jesucristo nos envio aqui para ayudarles."]
[I always say, "we are representatives of Jesus Christ."]  ...  ["We are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints." For me, the Holy Ghost can testify more strongly if I start with, "we are representatives" or "Jesus Christ sent us here to help you."
I can feel the spirit testify so much better when we testify and tell them we are representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ! The best companion is definitely the Holy Ghost!

 

And dad, that's cool that you saw all those people this last week! It's good to hear some things from home to keep me sane and to hear about football. People don't talk about football here cause the Texans are doing horrible!! They are like on a 8 game losing streak or something crazy like that! But I do need some sport news every week :p

 

Miracle for this week:

We had an investigator named Sharon and she was very solid. Her aunt that is a strong member in our branch had a family home evening with us and she was doing really good for a couple of weeks. She told us that she received an answer that she needed to be baptized and then she falls off the deep end. She has been here about 2 months from Mexico and she lives with a different aunt that is catholic. She has been taking her to clubs, dances and introducing her to guys, and all this bad stuff. After zone conference is when I talked to president about some things and then the aunt called us on the way home and told us she wants to see us again. I feel like I did the right thing by talking to president and then I was blessed by her coming back to us. We just think that is a huge miracle that she has came back; we are trying to get her to live with the aunt that is a member but its kinda difficult. But this week has been very spiritual and it's been really good because lately I have been really stressed! But the spirit has really helped me a lot!

 

Me gusta dejarles con mi testimonio que esta obra es la obra del Senor. Y solamente por medio de El podemos traer nuestros amigos a El y todos de nosotros podemos ser salvados. Esta semana yo aprendi mucho de arrepentimiento y como recibir muchos bendiciones por eso. Se que esta iglesia es verdadera y el Libro de Mormon es la palabra de Dios. Se que Dios nos ama y quiere que regresemos a El despues de esta vida. Necesitamos leer y orar cada dia para obtener eso. Digo estas cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

[I would like to leave you with my testimony that this work is the work of the Lord.  And only through Him can we bring our friends to Him and all of us can be saved.  This week I learned much about repentance and how to receive many blessings because of it.  I know that this church is true and the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I know that God loves us and wants us to return to Him after this life.  We need to read and pray each day to obtain that.  I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.]

Con Mucho Amor

[With Much Love]

Les Amo, Elder Andersen 

[I Love You] (plural form)

Letter #24

Hey family,
This week has been very rough. We had many scheduled appointments and then they all seemed to fall through -- they either weren't there, drunk, or busy with something. But I have learned that the power of prayer is the key. God knows where we need to go but it is hard to be in tune with the spirit; so we have to listen closely. Lately, Elder Bushman and I have been relying on prayer to know and see and the last couple of weeks, we have seen many miracles we felt we needed to go see. And it's pretty sweet how the Lord's hand is in this work, and we find out that we are just instruments and he tells us what to do and were to go.

A cool story:

Yesterday we went and saw an investigator and her name is Gabby and she is cool. We want to teach her family but they are always busy. But one thing that is cool about them is the husband makes ribs and he charges 30 dollars for a rack of ribs and, as we were leaving the lesson, he asked us if we wanted some. Of course, ya'll know me; I will never turn down food. So I took them and they were soooooooooo good!!! The meat just fell off the bone and it was amazing!

But of course, mom, nothing is compared to your food :)

I love ya'll and keep up everything! Keep me in your prayers and pray for me to be a better missionary. :)

Love, Elder Andersen

Letter #23

Hey family!!!

Yes dad I am a little jealous of your partying; but I am satisfied here too :)  We received transfer calls today and I am staying here again :) I LOVE it here in Kemah! Even though it's very hard to find people; but I know the Lord will provide a way!

Every day I am out here, I find out that this gospel is more and more true as I read the scriptures and pray! It is an awesome opportunity to serve a mission. I do have hard days and weeks; but I know the Lord is here with me and I have have angels holding me up cause there are days where I can't go on but there is literally a force pushing me and guiding me of what I need to do!

Funny story:

We helped a less active move out of her apartment and we thought it was going to be an easy move -- just putting things from her house in the truck and leaving. But when we got there, we found out that we will be moving her into her next place too; so overall it took 5 hours!!!!! But we arrived there to a messy house that hasn't even been packed, so we help pack and then put everything in the truck. I used the dolly to take the dryer to the truck while Elder Bushman was getting the washer prepped and I come back to water squirting everywhere. And I was like man, what happened?!?! We thought they would have turned off the water but they didn't, and the knobs didn't work so we had to turn of the complex's water so they were out of water for a little. But that happened for a good 10 minutes -- it looked like Elder Bushman went swimming at the end and her kitchen was in 3 inches of water. (When I send my camera stick, you will see some funny videos of this and some pictures) but yeah it was just a crazy day!!!  

And yes, we did have a Halloween party and the picture below is of our Halloween party there. It was an English ward and a Spanish branch mixed; so it was really fun! The girls with the mustaches are in my district in our branch and the guy behind is a missionary in the English ward named Elder Sami, he was Captain Moroni and me and elder Mastergeorge are duck dynasty representatives. We also got to judge the chili, (one of the good perks of a missionary always gets to judge the winner of food contests:)) The other girls are in the English ward; so I don't know them but they loved mine and elder Mastergeorge's costume :)

Today I studied Integrity and it really hit me what it means and what we have to do. One story that I read today was in Daniel 6. It is a story about how Daniel went against the laws to know what God wanted him to do, and I know if we have integrity cause we know it to be true, then we will receive alot of blessings :)

Love ya'll and don't forget about integrity.

Love, Elder Andersen

MELISSA EXCLUSIVE E-MAIL

I don't usually share my personal e-mails that Elder Andersen sends to me... but I HAD to share this one AND the picture he sent with it! I sent Elder Andersen a Halloween Card in the mail with a longer letter and some money in it. A girl from college that he was dating before his mission "wrote him off" which we call being "Dear Johned". On my husbands mission when you got a Dear John letter they made you a cake. So we decided to send him some money to go and BUY a cake because we were not there to make one for him!! So glad that he is able to really serve now that he is not worrying about any girls back home!! :) Oh and also I made friends with someone from his mission on FB and told him to give Elder Andersen a hug for me! :) ENJOY ~ 

whatssssss uuuuuppppppp!!!!!!!!!????

So your letters are awesome! They totally make my whole week! I took advantage of your offer for the "Dear John Cake"! I will attach a picture of it too! I decided to splurge a little, so I got myself a Red Velvet Cake Roll!!! It was heavenly- defiantly worth the "dear john letter"!!!

Well as you can see in the picture it doesn't look like i was smiling. I tried real hard to make a funny face but it didn't turn out so good. :p Thanks for everything you do for me you are the best!!!

And Ivan gave me a hug :p He showed me the conversation with you on FB! He is the funniest guy ever!! He comes out with us sometimes and he is hilarious!

Thanks for the pictures too!  :)

Love Elder Andersen