Letter #96

Hey family!

I am learning that I hate writing emails. I think I noticed this more coming down to not having too many more left to write!! Times flies!!!! Some cool things that happened this week: First an investigator we found made us this amazing plate of food, and oh man was it good! It was brisket, sausage, collard greens, beans, potato salad, peach cobbler, with a bunch of yummy side treats! It was delicious! (picture below) I love Texas food!

Next; after church we had a Linger Longer. Our home ward in California needs to adopt this! :) It was soooo good, because we had Stake Conference then we were able to enjoy that! I talked to some recently moved in members from Mississippi and they said their ward did that once a month! I am going to start that in California for sure!:) Hahaha

This week we helped a member mow his huge lawn!!!!!!!!!!!!! He let me drive his riding lawn mower! :0 Oh man it was soooo fun! Dad; we might need to invest into buying one of those! It was probably really fun to me because I haven't driven for like 2 months! It sucks having your driving privileges taken away while on the mission!

Something that really boosted my testimony this week was teaching this less active guy in the ward. He is 68 and he is a High Priest he was telling us that he is fine were he is being less active and not going to church. He did not mind not taking the sacrament, and pretty much said he was fine not progressing at all. After a gentle rebuking a little, and my companion and I telling him what his role is and specifically how much responsibility he has. Then reminding hims that if he doesn't do what he is supposed to then we did not want to think where he will end up! It was sad leaving him thinking what he is doing, but it was an eye opening experience for me because it made me really things about it and I never want to be like that! (even though I know I am not going to be like him).

Well, that is all I can think of! Love y'all

Love, 

Elder Andersen

Letter #95

Hey Family,

Espero que no estoy olvidando mi espanol pero claro que si vamos a hablar chismes de los de mas! jaja (I hope I 'm not forgetting my Spanish but of course if we talk gossip when I get home! Haha) That was in response to my dad asking him in Spanish "Como te le va con la idioma Espanol?  !Espero que podremos hablar mucho cuando regresas!" which translates to: How is it going with the Spanish Language? I hope we can talk alot when you come back!"

There has not been too much that has happened this week that I can think of! There is one cool thing that I actually loved... we went to a Pentecostal Church! Don't get worried, of course I know that it is not the true church; but I liked it. It was very different, but I liked how they sang and praised the Lord! Haha. The funny thing is that they sing our Church Hymns! Quick Question; are our Hymns copyrighted? I was not sure if they could do that! :p hahaha.

Another cool thing that happened is that one of our recent converts called us to his house to help him out. He used to be a hard core druggie before he was baptized, and he called us over to help him out because he was wanting to do drugs again. We sat and talked to him and tried to help him get his mind off of it, so we ended up going out to dinner! We spent about 4 hours with him that night, but I know that is where we needed to be to help him! I was really happy to help him out!

OH, and another cool thing is that we had 68 people at church this week! It was a Miracle! The normal average is like 30, so it was a huge change to see so many people there! I was really surprised, but also really happy to see them all! :) We also had 2 investigators at church this week to top it off! It is kind of hard because I am not used to having just 2. I am used to having like 5 investigators in the old wards I served in, but it is a good start for here! :)

Mom and Dad: I sent a package home with some shirts and jackets in it. :) A lot of the stuff was given to me throughout my mission! Feel free to wear it if you want! JUST... don't mess it up! :p ahahah

That is all I can think of for now! 

Love y'all!

Elder Andersen!

P.S. Did y'all know you can own a peacock? Well... a member here does! Mom... I want one too!

Letter #94

Hey family!

Man, I can't believe that it took so long! (replying about Sharon and Harris getting engaged and married in June) I thought that they would get married like the next Saturday after I get home! It is all good, it gives them a lot of time to plan and have fun! I am happy for them! Man, I still remember the joke that I would get married before Sharon! I guess that won't come true, you beat me Sharon! :p ahaha 

This week was pretty cool! First, to start off we spent a day with a farmer. (He is a member in the ward.) We spent the majority of our day there and just offered our service to him for the day. So what we did was that we helped put up a long fence to hold his cows in. We put more poles in the ground, and welded (he taught me a little bit about welding), and man was it fun. Don't get me wrong, it was hard but fun! Still thinking if I want to do that or not! We will see. At the end he wanted us to fish and fix the fish he has. Can you believe I caught 5 fish! Man, did I feel cool because that is the first fish I caught in my life! You should have seen me, I was super scared to grab the fish at the beginning, but near the end it was a piece of cake! ahah  I also got super sun- burnt, the good thing is that I am getting a good tan! :) I sure do miss the Cali sun to tan in! ahaha

This week at church was pretty bad, everything that could have gone wrong did. I am really disappointed with this branch. We are still trying to help them out as much as we can, it is hard but we are trying our very best!

One thing that was sad this week was when we had to see our little "mini missionary" Hugo go home! He says that he wants to come out again with us, but for a week next time! We will see what happens! That is exciting to think about!

The picture I sent this week is next to an investigator apt. His neighbor thinks that he is the Messiah! I guess  you can tell he is a little Nutty! We have never talked with him but my companion says he is crazy and we should talk to him! haha. You will have to tell me what you think about him by the picture!

Love y'all!

Elder Andersen

Letter #93

Re: Stake ConfeHey Family,Hey Family, 

Hey Family,
How are y'all doing? This week was pretty cool, but like always I can't think of anything that has really happened!!!!!! I guess one cool thing is we have a new "Mini Missionary" with us for 3 days. A member in the branch wanted to come and tag along and spend the night with us! It is super fun, but it takes away from my sleep because we ended up wrestling last night! Man that was fun! Today we are playing Basketball and of course that is super fun too! We are doing a lot of work, and we have a lot planned for the next couple days! Today I bought a cowboy shirt to go with my outfit I sent home. :) Don't worry because it was a cheap one at Walmart. I am trying to watch it because I am almost out of money in my account, I guess I need to stop spending all the money... hahah!

So there was a cool miracle that happened this week. We got a referral from a member who is from Thailand. He speaks English and Karen (?), and he has 11 friends that are interested in the church. They all speak Karen (?), so we only taught one of the 11 friends so far and he accepted a baptism date! We will teach the other 10 soon! It was a fun lesson that we had with him, we said a few sentences and then the member translated it for us. We taught the whole Restoration and it super interesting to watch, now I know what it feels like to not know what people are talking about! Haha. I haven't felt like I don't understand a language for awhile!

Hey Dad, when I get home I am going to start my diet and workout plans! Can you sign up for a gym so that when I get home I can lose some weight!! I am losing it little by little here!!

Also, please let Jake know that I miss him! Tell him I still don't know what I am doing after the mission! I have an appointment to talk to the Mission President so hopefully that will help me out!! I am for sure going back to BYU- Idaho so hopefully we can hang out there!

I heard that Kaylee is engaged?!?!? Were you planning on going to go to her wedding?!?! I guess it is 3 days after I get home! I think I kinda want to go! We can talk more about that later.

Love y'all!

Elder Andersen

P.S. The picture is of my birthday cake that mom sent me for my birthday! It was soooo yummy!!!!

Letter #92

Hey Family,

This week was pretty cool! I think I told you last week, but if i didn't we were able to attend Heiliey Penillas baptism back in Houston! It was an amazing experience to see them again and see her get baptized! I also enjoyed being able to see all the missionaries in the area again too! It has been hard in my new area because I am only with one person all the time!! I feel bad for my wife when I get married! haha I like getting out and seeing other people for some reason, so I guess I better find someone who feels the same way! The trip was super fun! We had a member drive us in his HUGE Dually Truck, it was soooo nice and he drove fast. He was going about 95 mph all the way to Houston! It was soooo crazy!!! Picture below!

I wanted to say Thanks for everything I got for my birthday! I really loved all the different things I got! It was funny to open the present and see just a bunch of treats... The only problem was that it was fast Sunday so I could not eat it until later. I kept thinking to myself; Well it is my birthday.... so I can do it! :p haha

Something funny that happened this week is that we talked to some drunk Hispanics... actually I guess that is kind of a typical day! ahah However, this one was really funny. He was talking about how Obama is a horrible President, but how he hates Republicans because they don't like immigrants. I wanted to say some things but I did not want to offend him. He was super drunk and crying and saying that he thought all white people hate Hispanics. I asked him "Why are we talking to you then? We are out here to help!" and then he changed his attitude toward us. He was pointing his finger at me and getting in my face a little bit, I was getting ready to punch him in the face, but I kept my cool. At the end of talking to them, they came to love us because we spoke Spanish. We even got a return appointment with them! It was a funny thing I am sure for others to have watched! They also really thought my Spanish was good, so I decided to tell them I was from Bogota Columbia and they both believed me, and started asking me how it was there. After that they talked about how there are a lot of drug cartels there and that I should join them so I can get more money! Man, I love Hispanics, they are sooo funny sometimes!

Oh, and after the baptism I got to see the Canos'! They brought me a birthday cake and empanadas! I really love and miss them!

Love y'all!

Elder Andersen