Monday, March 24, 2014

Letter # 43

Hey family ~
So good news, I did not go 4 weeks in a row breaking my bike!!! That is so nice not having to worry about it! Hopefully it can stay like this for the rest of my mission! NO MORE BIKE PROBLEMS!!

This week we had a wonderful time! We taught 19 lessons (best in the last 35 weeks) and we also got 3 new baptism dates!! All of them are super cool and I know they are getting baptized! We had some cool miracles! On Thursday we took a member out with us and we went to go visit on a referral that we received from the English Elders. We knocked and this women from Peru answered the door. She was excited we were there and wanted to talk to us. The member talked to her also and we found out that they knew each other about 2 years ago from church. The women and her brother went to church many times and then had to go to Peru to take care of some important things. They came back a couple of months ago and we found them!! The brother accepted a baptism date for 2 weeks away and he will definitely be ready! The sister is super prepared, but she has some doubts about the polygamy and some others church history. We resolved most of them, and she loves when we come over. She also told us that she loves the Book of Mormon! They are super solid, and super nice. We have another baptism set up pretty soon so I am excited to see the Lord's hand in this work!

We are planning on going bowling this week, so we aren't trying to take to much time online. Other than the miracles I have seen this week, it has been pretty good.:) We had interviews with the Mission President and those are always super cool! I have a question for y'all. Would y'all happen to know about the Pre-Adamites?!?!? I heard some things about them from my Mission President and my mind was blown! Then I thought about cavemen, and then I was thinking like... I just don't know! Hopefully y'all will know something about that to help me out. :) I have other doctrine questions that go more into detail but I want to know y'all's opinions on this one first!
Love y'all,
Elder Preston Andersen
This is a picture that a Member took of Preston. 
That is his companion teaching a lesson in the back... 
Preston thought we would get a good laugh out of this picture!!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Letter #42

Hey family,
Yes, I am wearing green, and it is a good thing I am not wearing red :) (My Dad's letter mentioned to wear green for St. Patricks day so he did not get pinched and then he said wearing Red meant you wanted to be kissed when he was a kid.)  Before I forget to say it; Yes I have got my package! I loved it! The blanket works our perfectly! :p haha. I made the cake and ate the beef jerky already! That beef jerky was super good! In the next package you send you should get the green kind of that same brand. One of my old companions got it, and it was like some kind of lime and it was sooooo gooood!! Oh, and the craisins and chocolate covered acacia berries are always good! :) Thanks for those too. :)

Man, the banks are so crazy lately!!!! They won't even allow you to deposit something? They need to take a chill pill! I am not able to access my account anymore. I used to be able to, but not anymore. I think it is still going on but I am not sure. Too bad Crystal is not working at Wells Fargo anymore. I use my debit card about 10 times a month  because we use the MSF cards for groceries. So only if I run out of money or have to fix a bike. AND SPEAKING about bikes, my front tire ripped and I had to get a new one! Luckily for me one of the rich members paid for it. I had seen the rip, so we went back to the apartment and walked to the closest members house. When we got there he asked us "Where are your bikes?!" I said "Well my bike is broken again!" He told me to bring it to him tomorrow morning  and he will get it fixed for me! So I was blessed and $50.00 didn't have to come out of my pocket! I just hope that nothing else happens to my bike and I can end this horrible streak of bike problems!!! haha

I cant believe how many people are going home so soon! That is crazy! Please tell President Larson I am excited for him to set release me when I get home! I would have rather had you dad, but he is a good second! :) haha

So not much else has happened this week. I guess the highlight of the week was my massage!!! The 2nd Counselor of the Mission Presidency is a Massage Therapist. He does missionaries for free! I got the shock treatment, and a massage. He cracked my whole back!!! I have never felt so good in my life! He cracked me in places I never thought could have been cracked! When I come back to visit the mission I am definitely going to visit him because he is a walk-in clinic and he charges $20.00 for a treatment. Man was it heavenly!! I am very thankful to get that because my back has been bothering me since the last transfer. Being in a biking area is the worst! ahah

This week was very boring, so there wasn't that much going on. Hopefully next week I will have something cool to tell y'all! I love y'all!

Love, Elder Andersen 

Monday, March 10, 2014

Letter #41



Hey family!

The only thing that I can remember that happened this week was that my bike broke again! hahaha. The thing that holds my pedals broke!  The metal bar that connects both together snapped in half, and I had to walk my bike home 3 miles! It was a fun day!!! :p haha. So I am taking it in tomorrow to get it fixed! My companion has gone through 6 bikes while on his mission! I blame my bad luck on him!!!!

Another good thing I liked about this week is the Atonement! We learned too much from it! My Favorite scripture now is Alma 42:22!  It talks about there is a law that God cannot break; it's the law of justice. If he were to break the law he would cease to be God. He loves us so much that he gave us mercy through the Atonement of Jesus Christ! I will have to make copies of the paper for y'all! It is my favorite to study in the morning, because when you think about it we don't know ANYTHING!!!!!! I can tell that my Mission President knows so much; yet he tells us that he barely knows anything. I love learning about the Atonement and how to apply it! I will have to teach y'all how deep it is when I get back!

This week is transfers, and as I predicted I am staying! So I am pretty happy. I would love this barrio so much more if we had a better obispo (bishop)! He is making me so angry! haha. I guess there is a rule that missionaries can't bring families to the church for F.H.E. to play sports, and then have a spiritual message at the end! I know it means family HOME evening but if the family isn't going to do it at their house, I thought that it would be better to have it at the church and feel the spirit! Apparently he told us we can't do that!!?!? Would y'all happen to know about that rule or what?!!?!?

Last Monday they threw me a "Surprise Birthday Party". It was really fun! We had root beer floats and cake. Then we watched one of my favorite movies; Ephraim's Rescue!!! So good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I suggest if you haven't watched it yet that you do it!!! The spirit is so strong, and it is so funny too!

This week wasn't too special, but I had fun! Love y'all and hope to hear from y'all later! :)

Love, Elder Andersen

Monday, March 3, 2014

Letter #40

Dear Family,
Sadly, no I didn't get my package on Saturday. Hopefully I will get it today! :) Mom gave me the spoiler alert so I know what it is and I LOVE it!!!! I was so cold last night, so now I will be nice and warm tonight! :) hahaha We didn't do to much on my birthday, just a normal missionary day! We went to Arby's for lunch and then biked in the freezing rain! That day it was a little chilly so I put on a windbreaker. My companion had just a jacket on and when it started to rain he took of his jacket because it is not supposed to be wet I guess. So he rode in freeing rain, I don't know how he survived because I was super cold with a jacket on! He just had on a short sleeve white shirt and a tie! Those Crazy Guatemalans!!! 

And yeah, those Eagle Scout letter are pretty annoying! I just remembered that I still haven't had my Court of Honor! Does that mean I am still not an Eagle!?!!? hahah :p

On Monday when we went out proselyting  we rode our bikes to our appointment and as I was riding my gear somehow got caught in the spokes and bent the whole gear, and everything in the back. I took it into the bike shop the next day and it was supposed to be like $220.00 to fix it!! Since I am a missionary (and then I "Jewed them down a little" more I only ended up paying $158.00 to fix it all.  I went a little more expensive on the rims and got a double layered one.  The guy in the store told me it will need a lot of force to bend this rim and spokes so he said I should be fine for the rest of my mission with it. So I thought I might go expensive this once and not pay like $100.00 bucks every 6 months! So that is how our first couple days went! haha Good thing I am getting my taxes back so my taxes payed for the bike fix! :)

So yesterday as we went to church it was pretty warm, so I wore my shirt sleeve shirt to church under my jacket. On the way home it was the same temp.  and then as we left the house to go out and work I kept the shirt on because it was warm and I didn't think anything of it. When we went to our first house we were sweating because it was a little warmer. We ate food, and shared a lesson and it was an hour tops so when we came out and it was just a little chilly. So we didn't think anything of it and we went to another members house. We were there for an hour and a half helping them with empenadas (btw I have the recipe and I will make a bunch when I get home, they are sooooo good!!) When we left that house it was freezing and drizzling!!!! We rode as fast as we could to our investigators house and she didn't want us to be in the cold so she made us go in her house and we were there about an hour. It was time to go home, and as soon as we stepped our foot out the door you could feel this strong freezing wind!!!!! It was lightly raining and that was freezing too! I would have to guess it was about 35 degrees but with the humidity and the wind in your face it felt like 20!! So we were about 4 miles away from our apartment and the wind was going against us! It was sooo hard! Every mile and a half we stopped at a gas station and stayed inside for about 20 minutes to warm up. And then we would travel another mile and a half and hit up the next one. I thought I was going to get frostbite it was so cold!!!! I so regretted not wearing a sweater that day!!!

This week has been pretty crazy! I love the mission more and more everyday... I don't know if you guys will hate me for saying this, but sometimes I want to be here for the rest of my life! :p haha, One day I will be home so don't worry :p
Love y'all and thanks to all for the birthday wishes!!!
Love, Elder Andersen!
and Melissa say thanks for the birthday wishes on FB :)