Letter #87

Hey family,

This week was pretty cool! I am starting to write down the things that happen during the week so I have stuff to say to y'all! The last couple of letters have been very short, and I have had nothing to write about, or I forgot what had happened in the week! So this week I came prepared! Well,  I was thinking of the things last night that had happened! I was able to think of some cool things to share!

One was that I lost my driving privileges like a month ago (for dumb reasons). So on Wednesday I spoke with the driving coordinator of the mission and he told me a bunch of things about what happened. There wasn't an accident it was dumb "TIWI" which Sharon can explain. (I got a lot of check your speed and aggressive driving) When they printed the report he said that they were all at 9:20 pm and later. So then he looked at me and asked "Man, do you get home on time!?" and I said "I get all the violations to get home on time!"  But he told me that other than those I have a perfect score on my driving. He said he would give me my privileges back but that Salt Lake said to take them away for the rest of my mission. (only 3 more months) So it's not too bad! It's crazy trying to get home on time because in my mind I have to knock that last door or talk to that last person! I don't care what time it is, but I always try to get the last one in!

So I had my Quarterly Interview with President Ashton. It was super good! The only thing that I did not like about it was that he didn't give me permission to go out to lunch with Matt when he is in town visiting his Distribution Center. He told me I will see my family soon enough! So that's why! Haha. He also told me a lot of things that I was having doubts with; like why am I still here? What do I have to do?  When he gave me those answers I was able to relax! As soon as I got into the Interview I asked him for a list of all the new people coming into the ward. I wanted to go visit them all. He said that no body has asked him that before in the whole Mission and he was really happy when I had asked! He also said that I have been an amazing missionary in this area and that I was there for a specific purpose. Then he said that when I am done here he will be sad when I leave the area because he knows I have helped this ward out, and the members all love me. Then he told me that I will have to leave the area because the Prophet has asked not to have missionaries in an area for more than 1 year! (Even though I will pass that date soon!) Haha. I got a lot of positive feedback from President Ashton and he really helped me out! Then he told me that I will be going to a bike area because I have gained too much weight, so we both agreed that will be good for me. :) Hahah!

Cool miracles with the Alverenga's! They now want to get married! We went over there on Thursday, and I made them chicken and they really loved that! It was a cool visit! At the bottom will be a picture of them :)

Thanks for every thing!

Love, 

Elder Andersen

sorry the picture  is a little blurry!

Letter #86

Hey Family,

Man, I can't believe that Omar is leaving for his mission! I can still remember when he got baptized! And... Dang I won't see him for practically 2 more years! He will for sure be a good missionary! I think his parents will soften their hearts too as he serves!

I have not seen a new picture of this "Alleged Bathroom!" I want to see what it looks like! I hope it looks good! You might as well  build an upstairs loft and put a theater room in too! Then we can watch BYU football games like champs!

I don't get to  hear much about any sports here, man do I miss that! However, I am learning that it is OK because the life in the mission is better! BTW how are the Sacramento Kings doing?!? HAHA! 

This week was pretty cool! We had Leadership Training yesterday and it was really nice. I personally love when we have training meetings with our Mission President; he is a genius! I love him so much! I actually have an interview with him! We have our Quarterly interviews as a Zone tomorrow! I am always excited to talk to him and ask him questions! I have some good questions I have been studying up on but can't find answers too! We will see how much he can help me out! 

This week I went on my FIRST exchange! It was super fun! I went with Elder Moyes! It was in an English area and after every lesson they asked me to pray. I prayed in English, and Oh My Goodness... I cant pray in English to save my life! Haha! The people told me I did a good job after, but I think they were just trying to make me feel good! I guess I should have asked them if I could pray in Spanish! Haha! It is OK! We saw a lot of miracles this week! One was an investigator wanted to quit smoking, so Elder Moyes gave him a blessing to help him stop, the blessing he gave really shocked me! Elder Moyes said "Whenever you smoke it will taste nasty to you, and every time you drink beer you will hate the taste." That blessing was really strong, I felt that the spirit was there!

Nothing else really happened now that I can think of, but it was a good week!

Love y'all!

Elder Andersen

Enjoy this pictures I took of our beautiful Texas sunrise!

Letter #85

Hey Family,

This week was pretty cool! There was alot of changes, and alot of things to do! They canceld our Spanish Stake and divided the people all into English wards, so now our whole mission will be changed! It was just changed today! We have all new Districts and Zones! I have 4 companionship's in my District! Two sets of Elders so now I can go on exchanges again! haha! One of the Elders in the zone is Elder Moyes and I have known him since the beginning of my mission! He is super fun, so as you can tell I am excited!

Our ward got a little more area from other wards! We are giving some of our ward area to the Sisters in our District! They are going to receive a couple of our investigators, but its OK! I know they are good missionaries and they will take good care of them. 

I have not gotten a new companion. Transfers will be in 4 weeks! My companion is still Elder Balls from Logan Utah!

The new bishop is doing really good! He is trying a lot of new things and doing some really great work within the ward! The ward members don't really do much still. We ask for something, but they don't really do anything to help the work! 

The sister don't have to many problems; except a lot of bike problems that we get to fix! Haha! Other than that exciting news no to much else going on! 

So not to much happened this week, that i can think of... BUT I love y'all!

Love,

Elder Andersen

Letter #84

Hey Family,
This is what I sent in my letter to the Mission President about the miracles we had this week:
This week was really good! We had a lot of success this week even though we had a lot of meetings and stuff happening. We had the coolest miracle with our baptism this week. He did not have a date set at the start of the week, and we saw him on Wednesday and set up an appointment with him on Saturday. We had happened to see him on Friday because he lives at a members house. The spirit told me to ask him what he was doing on Sunday! So, I did and he said "Nothing." Then the spirit told me to ask him if he wanted to get baptized on Sunday, so I asked and he said "Yeah!" and then he asked us what he needed to do to be able to be baptized. So we told him we would see him the next day to finish the lessons, and then ask him the interview questions to see if he was ready! So we went over and taught the rest of the lessons and asked him the baptismal questions and he knew them perfectly. He was so ready! We set up the time for the baptism and then the time for his interview. He told us he was going to get home late the night before and that he might need some help waking up. I asked him if we could call him to help and he said that would be fine. We called him about 5 times to help wake him up and he didn't answer. We decided that we should drive to his house to make sure he was awake. Luckily we did because when we got there we learned that he wasn't. We knocked on the door and the member opens it and told us that he wound not be baptized that day because he was still asleep, and that he had not heard our phone calls. In that moment I knew that he was going to get baptized that day, so I asked the member to go knock on his door. He did, and then he came back saying that he was still asleep and that the baptism isn't going to happen. We were then able to talk the investigators wife into going to try to wake him up... well she did it after awhile. And guess what?? He came down and said that he would get ready! We showed up to church late with all the waking up stuff, but he still got his interview done and passed and was ready to be baptized! After I heard in the Christmas Conference the part about "Our faith will be tried, and the storms will come in..." I knew I had just kept my faith in that moment and hoped for the best! I saw those come but I chose to have more faith and it all went through when he got baptized. It was an amazing experience to see it.

We also went over to a old former investigator that we had when Elder Cassiano was here. We were only able to find the father, but he invited us in and we taught a good Restoration Lesson and he accepted a baptismal date and we have a return appointment with his family. This area hasn't been seeing as many miracles, but since we have had a goal and have been working toward it, we have seen a lot of cool things!

This week was really cool! We saw the Lords hand in a lot of the work this week!

We helped a guy that is super smart in the doctrine! He blew my mind again! Haha! Man its fun to hear things from him, he makes me think in a different way!

One thing that was funny this week is we just happened to brake the window in our apartment! Haha! It only cost $15.00 to fix, so $7.50 each... Now I wish I would have applied the Don't throw balls in the house!" rule and learned that I will brake something. We neglected that because I was throwing a stuffed ball that is really soft, so we thought it was not strong enough to brake a window! We were wrong. (picture below)

This is what my Mission President responded to me this week:

Congratulations on Luis' baptism! Thank you for being persistent with him. I suspect by the end of the month you will understand why you are still needed in the ward, but more particularly in the district. Just exercise faith. Few missionaries have the success you do because they aren't in an area as long as you have been. I love you.

I will try to find out why I am still here, and maybe I am here to stay till I go home... Man I only have 4 months left! Time flys!!!

Dad, please tell Omar that I thought about that, but i didn't get into BYU or I would have tried out!

It was an amazing week!

Love y'all!

Elder Andersen