FIVE...

We can count on ONE HAND how many days until his safe return...

FIVE DAYS PEOPLE!!!

SIX...

How many days until we get to see our AMAZING missionary you ask...

Hailey picked this picture... don't blame me...

SIX DAYS!!!!

ONE WEEK COUNTDOWN!!

ELDER ANDERSEN will be returning home from his Mission on NEXT Tuesday, May 5th 2015. We are very excited for his safe return!!

 SEVEN DAYS ... 

Letter #100

Hey family,

I am so happy to see that you are doing the Lords work! It really is the BEST thing EVER!!!!!!! I am getting sad to leave my mission, but like another missionary told me just last week; he is depressed to leave the mission, but excited to see what the Lord has in store for him at home! I feel pretty equal to what he said! I am excited to go home, because I know I can always be a missionary at home too!:) It is literally the best thing in the WORLD to see people coming unto Christ, it is true happiness and it lasts!! :)

Just to let y'all know, this will be my last message! I don't think they let us email the day before we go home, so this is going to be my last official email that I send off to y'all!

To answer your questions dad;

-No, not at all. But I will now!

-I will take about a normal time, so 15 min. but if yours is short I can fill in for you :p Don't worry, I have a lot of stories to tell!

-Yes, I would love to go car shopping! :) I always love car shopping! If you can wait for me to go that would be awesome!

-and last, yes! I am down to go on that camping trip. :)

Glad you have gotten everything situated for when I come home! It will be nice that we are not scrambling around everywhere! Hahah Everything sounds good for all the meeting times! :)

I am very sad to hear about Ashton and his mother! If you see him, tell him I will be praying for them and that I love them! I love that song Glorious too! That is a great song.

This week, Sam was not baptized. As we walked in to give him the interview, he had drank that day and was still a little buzzed. As we walked in, he woke up and told us that he just had his last beer with his buddies. We went on with the interview and about 20 minutes into it Sam slams open the door and tells Elder Carter to get out of his house. Obviously, we left his house when he was mad. To start off, Sam was soooo excited to get baptized on Sunday and nothing would stop him from it. Then when Elder Carter told him he will have to wait another week, that got him really mad because he was so set on doing it on that Sunday! He got really mad and kicked us out of his house! We all leave and Elder Carter tells us what happened and said he pasted the interview portion and that he was golden, but that he would have to wait a week to get baptized because its a rule that they have to be clean for a week. My companion and I said a prayer and we decide to go back to his house and talk it through. We opened the door and he was still super mad the Elder Carter because he would have to wait a week, however we calmed him down, and told him that it was our fault for not telling him that he couldn't drink. (even though we told him every day that week not to drink). We talked him into getting baptized next week and that he was going to go to church. So Sunday rolls around and he send us a text that he doesn't want to get baptized anymore. We are guessing he is still mad. We have an appointment with him today so we will try to help him feel the spirit again and have the same desires to get baptized this Sunday! If y'all can pray for him that he can soften his heart and can get baptized this Sunday would be awesome!

Other than that, I cant think of any other things that have happened... I guess I will see y'all soon!

Love y'all!

Elder Andersen

Picture of the Victoria District!

Letter #99

Hey Family!

This week was pretty dang fun! Sorry about not emailing yesterday; we were invited by a member to do some service work at his business. He owns a Fish Hatchery! And man, it was a blast working there! We did about 6 hours of service and he showed us a lot of different things. I got to drive a Bulldozer (that was fun, I would definitely like one of those. haha) I learned how to dig out a trench, and he let me weld some things together. I feel like we pretty much learned all the ropes to work in a Fish Hatchery! At the end of the service we gave, he told me that if I wanted to work for him during the summer he would happily let me live with him and work for them! So... that will have to be taken to thought!

Along with that story, the same family (their last name is Picard) invited us over on Sunday to have some craw-fish! They are originally from Mississippi and he knows how to make some dang good craw-fish! I will have to make it when I get home sometime! It was sooooo good and spicy! It was delicious! ( see the picture below) They are my favorite family here in Port Lavaca! I dont know if this is bad to say or not... But they made us change out of our white shirts because they knew we would get them dirty! ;p Hahah

While we visited the Picards' one night we were talking and the father said to me "Two more weeks huh?" and I looked at him and said "Yes!" and he told me when he went home from his mission and when he walked down the airport terminal that he knew his mission was over, then he said no matter how much you beg or ask President Monson, your mission is over! When I heard that, I kinda lost my breath and got super depressed! I don't want to go home, the mission is literally the best! So; mom, dad and family when I am depressed at home don't be to mad at me!

Another thing that happened this week is that we received training on how to teach English! That was a fun meeting to see all the other missionary's! :)

So this week we will have a baptism with Sam! I don't know if I told y'all about him but we meet him and he was super cool from the start! We asked him on Saturday if he wants to get baptized the following Sunday that comes up, and he is soooo excited! We just hope we can get him an interview and help him get baptized! :)

Love y'all!

 Elder Andersen

Letter #98

Hey family,

This week was pretty dang crazy and fun at the same time! Time flies and I still cant believe how fast it goes! So some cool things that happened this week: First off, we went on exchanges with our Zone Leader Elder Dennis. He is pretty cool and a really good missionary! I learned a lot from him and we did a lot of things that day too!

Next; one of our investigators was drunk when we visited him. (we actually stole his beers, see picture below) We were inviting him to church and he asked us if we sing and dance in church, so I told him that it depends on the dancing. I let him know that I would have to see it to tell him if he can do it! So he said it is called the "C-walk", and since I am from California that I should know what it is! I guess it is really called the "crip walk"! So I asked him to show me because he was drunk and I knew it would be really funny... so as i am persuading him to do it, I grabbed my camera! He complys and says that he needs some music to dance, so his friend puts on music and he does his dance... MAN it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny! I almost died of laughter! I got it all on video, so in 3 weeks y'all can see his "Crip walk"! Hahaha

This week we visited a part member family and they have the coolest house ever! The husband  is a non-member and he invited us to go fishing with him! :) I am excited to do that with him soon, hopefully we can get him to come to church and accept the gospel. When we went over he was fishing and caught a huge catfish, and he was scaling it and cutting off the meat and throwing the stuff he didn't want to the seagulls! He would throw it into the air and the seagulls would catch it mid air! I have to admit it was pretty entertaining!

Another thing we did was help a member shine his rims. I told him that I was good at it because I worked at a car wash before the mission; I may have mentioned that I know how to do it even though I know nothing about that! :p Hahah It was still fun and we shined his rims for awhile! They were super dirty! The next day we helped them move furniture because they are re-doing a room in the house! I am starting to love doing service and getting dirty!

That is all I can think of!

Love y'all!

See y'all soon!

Elder Andersen

But here is a joke for all y'all Spanish Speakers: mujer al volante, peligro constante!

***I don't know why but for some reason this will only post SIDEWAYS... probably because it is a Missionary holding a beer! HAHA! Hope you are enjoying the Letters! ~ Melissa

Letter #97

Hey family,

This week was pretty cool! I loved General Conference! It was super good! It was really funny because it seemed like all the talks in the Saturday Morning Session were all about marriage! At the end of that session my companion and the members were asking me what I learned. I told them all that it looks like I need to get married fast! :) Just like what Elder Ballard said in the Priesthood Session; returned missionaries need to hurry and get married! My favorite talk was by Elder Holland... he is probably my favorite speaker of all! He has such a powerful testimony!

This week we had quarterly interviews with the Mission President. After mine I don't know what to think! Last year when we meet he shut down my idea for working for the Police, he told me that I should not be a Welder because I would get bored of it. Then he asked me what else I wanted to be, and I randomly thought of doing something with the FBI. He said that would be perfect for me, so hey, maybe I will look into going into the FBI now! I just need to talk to President Sharp and see what I should do to be able to get the best chance to get in there! I guess we will see how all that goes! Hahaha

So today, I woke up and threw up a ton! I swear that I lost 10 pounds! How cool is that?!?! Hahah I called the Mission Doctor and he told me it sounds like I have food poisoning. It has been fun running to the bathroom every 10 minutes and throwing up everything I eat! Welcome to the missionary life i guess, everything goes on and you just suck it up! Hahahah

Also this week I did some service and picked up a dead cat! How do y'all like my face in the picture? HAHA Man it was gross! :p

Love Y'all!

Elder Andersen