Letter #74

Hey family!

So this week was good! We tried to get the Moys to the Court House to get married, but it did not happen. His work did not give him the time off this week! Dad, you should know about the Hispanic culture; if the missionaries don't do anything about it then nothing gets done! I have learned that with a lot of Hispanics! You have to ask them to do something and you constantly need to be on their backs about it. You need to tell them to do it or it wont be done. Sometimes you have to drag them to do it! In missionary work we drag people to do stuff, but we don't force them to get baptized! That is always their decision! We drag them to do stuff, or it will never get done! I have especially learned that in this ward, if we don't say anything about it and remind the people all the time then nothing gets done! Sometimes we have to do everything, but as long as it does gets done I am Happy! Hahah

So another miracle I saw this week is about Christ like Love! (I will have to put the story in the letter next week, I just don't have enough time to put the whole story in today!)

One thing I forgot to put in last weeks letter was a Family Home Evening we had with the Orellanas! We had a small lesson and the girls in the family have been wanting to play a game called Chubby Bunny with us! It is a game where you see how many marshmallows you can fit in your mouth! I asked Griselda what her record was and she said 7! I then told her I would beat her of course! She has been talking smack for awhile now about it! I just told her we will have to see! So the time finally comes down at the end of the F.H.E. and she brings out the big marshmallows! I look at them and asked her how she fit 7 in her mouth and she showed me that she has stretchy cheeks! I think I started off with a disadvantage because my cheeks do not stretch... but man I had a lot of determination to win! We go around the circle one by one putting more and more marshmallows in your mouth. I got to 7 and I barely was able to say "Chubby Bunny." (I forgot to tell you that you have to say Chubby Bunny after every marshmallow) then I thought I was done, so I put one more in and tried to say it and I couldn't! I ended up spitting it all out and Griselda looked at me and I quickly threw it all back in my mouth and managed to say it and then spit it all back out! Everyone was laughing so hard that everyone had to spit out their marshmallows too! So I guess we actually tied, because she made up a rule that if you spit them out then you cant put them back in. BUT I so got 8! I so won! Hopefully this is considered a funny story and not a gross story for you!

I cant really think of anything else that happened other than this stuff! Thanks for all you do! I love y'all so much! Keep up the good work!

Love, Elder Andersen

Letter #73

Hey Family, 
This week has gone by so fast from last P-day! I don't really remember what has happened this week! Of course there were a couple cool miracles that happened this week!

First, we found the Guillen Family again! We had a really good lesson with them too! They are a super cool family, we found out that they are divorced so now they can easily get married and then baptized! The kids and the Mom at least, the Dad does not have a lot of interest in the gospel. We are hoping that he will soon! They accepted baptism dates and we are super excited! The only thing we have to do is help her change her job so she can have Sunday's off and be able to come to church! We have a job lined up that is perfect for her :) So I am excited to see their progression!

Secondly, we found the Moyas' again! ( They were recent converts and the parents have been members, but we baptized the daughter) It seemed like they were not answering the door every time we knocked so we stopped for awhile. They answered this week and said "Man missionaries, it has been a while since you were here!" They talked about how hard their lives have been, and how they don't feel worthy enough to go to church. The biggest reason is that the to parents aren't married, and they don't want the members to judge them. We got in and asked them how can we help them. I specifically asked them how can we help them get married! Elder Larson and I always ask them how we can help them get married, and they always say that they will do it, but they never did. This time they asked us if we can call the Courthouse to set up an appointment, because they don't speak English! We told them OF COURSE and asked them what date we can do it... so we are helping them get married :) I am super excited!

Something funny: We were talking about Eternal Marriage with The Canos' and they are sooo excited to get sealed in about 9 months! We went on to ask them about who they think we will marry, and then she brings out these tiny statues and said~ This is you and your future wife, and left it at that. Here is a picture of the statues that she told me my future wife is! Haha She told me that I can marry a Hispanic girl if I want! Hahah! It was a funny conversation! (see picture below)

All joking aside, this was a short but fun week! I don't have to many pictures to send, I need to get better in taking pictures! I love y'all and thanks for all you do!

Love, Elder Andersen

Letter #72

Hey family!

I do like receiving letters from the cousins! Sometimes I have time to read them, and sometimes I don't. Please keep sending them because I do like reading them if I have time!! :) (My dad has been forwarding Preston letters from our cousins that are also on missions right now.) 

This week was pretty sweet! We had one of the 70 come and give us a wonderful Mission Conference. (So Sorry for not telling you about the change of our P-day. It was changed to today because of the meeting and the Holiday on Monday!) His name was Elder Schwitzer, and OH MAN was it an amazing message that he gave to all of us! The main topic was about extending baptismal dates to people. He talked about how we need to make it more presentable; like we are baptizing in the name of Christ, and not getting baptized in the church! He said the reason we are baptized is for us to make a commitment to follow Jesus Christ! Then the Confirmation is for membership in the church! It was super good!

He talked a lot about his testimony about the Book of Mormon, and told how he saw original papers of the Book of Mormon! The same ones that Oliver Cowdery wrote and he said there were no crossed out words, and that there was nothing in the margins. It was translated perfectly! He also talked a lot of the different things the book has and comparisons to the Bible. The Book of Mormon was translated by a man with like a 4th grade education. He said We can't do that without a college degree, and the help of God! I was shaken and man my testimony grew so much of the Book of Mormon! I thought I had a good testimony of the Book before, but man I was wrong! It needs to go a lot more!  Haha 

At the end of the Mission Conference he bore his testimony as a special witness of Jesus Christ. That was powerful too, I really hope one day I can have a powerful testimony like him and my Mission President!

This week we found Jose Luis, but I think his friends have gotten to him. He wants to get baptized but has a lot of doubts again. We resolve doubt after doubt and it just goes on...  We told him to pray about it and he said he would! Hopefully we can help him get baptized soon!

This week was awesome! I got a special present from the Canos'! They bought me a Columbia Jersey! (like the legit World Cup Adidas one! It is super nice! They also gave me a Columbia flag! (not the flag, but it has the Seal of Columbia in the yellow) I still love it! (Picture on the bottom!) I love it and them so much!

Other than that I can not think of what else happened! It was a good week! I love you all!

Love, Elder Andersen

Letter #71

Hey family,

Well first to start off my letter, we received transfer calls and I am staying here again! This will be my 7th transfer here! There is something I am doing good here, or something I am doing bad and I need to correct it before I get leave! Haha. I am excited to be here for a little while longer! I love this dysfunctional ward, but man they are lazy! Hopefully "Yo puedo poner las pilas!" as the Hispanics say! In English it means "But the battery's in them!" Hopefully I can help wake this ward up! haha.

This week was of course a good week because General Conference was on! Man, I learned so much and was surprised how good it was. I think this has been was the only Conference that I did not fall asleep during! I was totally awake the whole time! Haha. My favorite talk was of course Jeffery R. Holland's about helping the poor and the needy! It put a lot in me, and I was like; I cant give money because I have got nothing to give, but I do have the GOSPEL to share! haha. When people ask me for money I will be able to tell them that I have something better than money to share! I have got Eternal Life! ahah. We will see what happens. Y'all would be surprised how often people ask us for money. I tell them that we don't have any, and they always say "Well if you are a representative of Jesus Christ you will give me a dollar." I think what I am going to say to the next person that asks me that I will ask them to show me once in the Bible where Jesus give people money!?!? I am sure they are going to make up some story or be like; Oh man, I guess he knows what he is talking about! Haha!

This week we did not baptize who we wanted, but we did get a Miracle baptism! The Aguilera's are a less-active family we always visit. They come to church about once a month. It all started out when I was looking through our Ward List and I noticed that we did not have a record for her, but she was baptized before. I asked our ward clerk and he said that she doesn't have a record, so she needs to get baptized again. I called the Mission President and he called Salt Lake to check and said her records are not there so go ahead and baptize her! I was like OK! So the good streak with baptisms continues! We could possibly have another one next week with Aracelly Alveranga!

Aracelly was supposed to be baptized this week, but her passport expired so she could not get a marriage license and we could not do it this week. She has an appointment today and hopefully we can get all this situated so she can get baptized this weekend! 

About Jose Luis; we haven't seen him for a week, it seems like he fell of the face of the earth. They told us they were moving, but that they would keep in contact with us. I don't know whats going on with that... hopefully they haven't moved yet so we can help them out. They have been going through a lot!

This week we are going to have to find a lot of people to teach because we have already baptized everyone we have been teaching! Haha! I know with the help of the Lord we will find people!

Thanks to everyone for what y'all do for me! Y'all are in my prayers! I wish the best for you and hope you take something from General Conference and apply it to your life! Love ya!!

Love, Elder Andersen

Here is a picture of the baptism!

Here is a picture after we worked on the Cervantes car... man it was hard and dirty!