Letter #68

Hey family!

This week was really good! Thanks to all of you that prayed for the Orellana Family. They were able to get baptized! Man it took a lot of work, but we ended up making it happen! I was on stress mode the whole week until I saw them dressed in white taking family pictures. It was then that I just felt calm and peaceful. All that hard work payed off, and made a difference in a family! As you can see in the picture below they are all very happy! Elder Jarvis baptized sister Maria Orellana and I baptised the father Rafeal Orellana! It really was an awesome baptism! Their daughter Marsela or Griselda (the one next to me in the picture) gave the talk on Baptism and it was very powerful! She talked about how she set aside her mission for a little bit to help convert her mother and her step-father! Her testimony was powerful and at the end she came up to my companion and I and thanked us for all that we did! I was telling her that we did not do anything, and told her that she is the one that helped her parents do this! This is a cool family! I love them to death!

Fanny Cano went to the baptism this week. At the end she gave her congratulations to the Orellana Family and then came to me and said "So this upcoming week I will be in the baptism font!" I am so excited for next week to have another baptism with Fanny! I really hope she chooses me to baptize her because I have been working with her for the last 4 months!!!!!!! She was so stubborn at the beginning, but we softened her heart and now she is humble and willing to be baptized! She will be getting baptized with 3 children and she is so excited about that too! :) She also has not been coffee since we taught her... so she is golden!

This week we have got a couple new people to teach and one that I have been teaching since I got here! She has been wanting to get baptized for the last 7 months, but her husband didn't want to get married to her. We told him that to get married he did not have to get baptized. He said "Ohhh, all this time I thought I was going to get baptized, but I don't have to!" So now he will get married to her so she can get baptized! I am sure eventually he will get baptized, but just in his time! They are the Alveranga's Family (or soon to be) and she is going to get baptized on the 28th of September or the 5th of October. I am super excited for her and what she is doing! 

This week my Mission President talked a lot bout having faith. The Lord is hastening his work and Apostle Cook said that there is 100,000 people in our mission that are willing to accept the gospel if we talk with them! So I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for us!

Nothing else really went on, besides my stressful week to get the Orellana's baptized! It was worth it!

I love y'all!

Elder Andersen

Left to right in picture Elder Jarvis, Emily Orellana, Maria Orellana, Rafeal Orellana, Griselda, Me! 

Letter #67

Hey family,

Man, I miss football!! I love to hear that the BYU Cougars are going strong! haha! I walked into the dinner appointment on Sunday to the 49ers vs Cowboys game. Oh man did that rip my heart in two! I miss football so much! I was so sad that I couldn't watch it that I ate the pizza in sadness! ahah!

Please keep the updates going on BYU and 49ERS for me will ya!?!~ :)

YES, Hermana Jones was in my district forever! That is crazy! She told me that her family lives in Preston now, and I told her that I have family there. She told me that she will probably see them and be in their ward! I guess she is in the ward of Grandpa & Grandma Andersen! What a small world! That is pretty cool. 

This week has been very busy for y'all! It sounds like you have been running around everywhere doing a bunch of things from your letter! I feel the same, we have so much to do! With the new bishop being called here (who has been putting the ward straight I might add) is asking us for alot things! We are teaching members and investigators, so I feel like we are running without a stop!

This upcoming week we should have 2 baptisms if all goes well! The Orellanas' will get baptized and they are super excited for it! Please pray that everything will go well! They still need a couple of lessons, and then the interview; I am just praying that everything goes well!

Another miracle this week: It was with Fanny! We had a lesson about the WOW (Word of Wisdom) and we traded her coffee for apple cider! Haha. I have a sweet video of me throwing away all of her coffee along with her coffee machine! It was soooo cool to do! She is progressing well, and will definitely get baptized in 2 weeks! I am so excited for her!

We see the Canos' every single day! Every day I get to see them the more and more I fall in love with them!!!!! They are the coolest family ever! They are so strong, and I know that I was put here just for them. Well, for other reasons too; but they are the family I really needed to help. What Dad said at the end of his letter really hit me... I look around at what I am doing and I am excited to bring the Cano Family in the Gospel. I will definitely enjoy Eternity with them! :) The longer I am on my mission, the more I feel like I am learning how to be a better missionary every day! I wish I would have taken the mission more serious before and tried to learn more. I would give up anything to start my mission over again!

I love all y'all!

Love Elder Andersen

Letter #66

Hey family,

This week was really good! I believe we had 32 lessons! The most important thing is that everyone is progressing so well!

We went to Jose Luis house to teach a lesson on Sunday. We knocked on the door and his son told us that he was sick and hurt, so what we asked if we could give him a blessing. We entered the house and then we proceeded to his room. He told us that he was in pain, and that he could not hear a lesson that day. He told us that we could come back later, so we asked him if we can give him a blessing so we did. Elder Jarvis anointed him, and I gave him a blessing to be healed. When we were done, we told him that we would see him at church the next day and he said that he would come if he felt better. He didn't think he would at all because he was hurting so bad! Guess WHAT? So I was sitting in Sacrament Meeting, and I looked back and saw him walk in and it looked like he was pain free. It was a huge miracle to see him walk in! We plan on visiting him tonight so we will see how everything is going. I am hoping that as we walk in he will ask us how did we do that!?! I hope we can help him understand that we have the authority to do these things through Christ and that he needs to get baptized!

The other cool thing is with the Orellanas Family. They came to church and they loved it! We finally got our new bishop too!!!!!!!:) They asked why so much was changing , and so I just said that the church gives callings to people in the ward and we rotate getting new calling every so often. That was a good explanation for them. The  Stake Presidency taught the third hour, and they talked about the Covenants we make, and the importance it is to do these things, then they talked about baptisms and all the way through to temple sealing's! It was amazing, the spirit was strong. When we went to the Orellanas house they said "Man those were some good talks today!" we got to extend a date for them to be baptized for the 14th. They looked at each other and asked each other what they have going on then they both said nothing, so they could do it! So I think they will progress to that date for sure!

Then we have Fanny. We had an amazing Plan of Salvation Lesson with her, her family and Hmo Diaz. Hmo Cano was there and he bore his testimony about becoming converted to the gospel and how he knows this is the only true church. The spirit was so strong. Then Hmo Diaz commented that he has seen a huge difference in her these last 6 weeks. She has come to church, and she is stronger than half of our regular members. The whole family told their conversion stories, and all I said to her was to listen to the people that love you and pray to God and ask him if baptism is your next step to take. She excepted to do it, so I am excited to go back and see how she is doing soon! 

So this upcoming weeks will be very good! Yesterday we played baseball with the Ward Members. It was fun! They were like... "Man, Elder Andersen is an allstar!" and I was like NO I have not played for 3 years almost I am horrible! Haha. It was really good, but now I am super sore today!

I can't think of anything else cool, just the people we are teaching are progressing and that makes me super Happy!
I love y'all!Love, Elder Andersen

Letter #65

Hey family,

This week was really good; first off, what happened that made me really happy is that we received our calls to see who is leaving and found out that i am staying here for another 6 more weeks :)  By the end of that,i will be here for 9 months :)  I love this area even though it's pretty difficult! But me and Elder Jarvis have been thinking and we should have at least 5 baptisms this transfer, so i am very excited to see this!

We talked to our leaders in the ward and still no news on the new bishop, it makes things a lot harder, because nobody wants to do anything because they are like, well, we don't have a bishop so why try! Which is horrible, and we already have people in the ward that have stake callings that talk bad about the old bishop! So hopefully we get a new one soon!

And dad talking about Rivercats reminds me that i was telling some people in the ward about baseball and they said we need to play baseball so we have a game scheduled for labor day (and btw my Pday next week will be on Tuesday).  And they are like, Elder Andersen i hope you stay so i can go play, i am super excited to go...now all i need to do is find an investigator to come play with us! so hopefully we can find some new people to come! But man i miss those days at the Rivercats was so fun! i definitely miss baseball alot! I get to play catch with the 1st counselor in the bishopric; so that's cool!

And dad, i do not remember who the Presslys are, or their daughter Jamie... do you have a picture of them, maybe i can recognize them, but it doesn't seem familiar at all! But it's good to hear that alot of missionaries are leaving on their missions! The mission is the best, i am going to bawl all night the day i get home! ahah But i didn't know that Trevor got his call and has left already; that's sweet! 

I heard about the new video, i talked with the sisters about it because they went on the going home trip to the temple and  they told me all about it, so it was cool to hear! i haven't been for about 4 months, so I'm due to do a session! i have been learning alot about the gospel lately, reading alot of talks about the atonment, one of the good ones is by M. Russell Nelson, he talked about it and different languages and it put alot of thoughts in my mind! When i think of reconcilliation in English, it translates to re- again, con-with, cillia or close to silla- to sit or chair and in spanish the root words mean to sit again with, like when we make it up to the heavens and through the atonement of christ we will be able to sit on the throne again on the right hand of god or something close to that, so it's cool to think of it in that way! But studying in 2 different languages is cool because sometimes different words have different meanings so you have 2 ways to look at it sometimes!

this week was really busy we had 29 lessons, and we have members asking so much of us, we are running in every direction to help everyone out, i hope this hard work pays off :)

Love all y'all

Love Elder Andersen 

Letter #64

Hey family,

So this week was a fun week! All of the weeks are normally fun, however this week we were able to go to the chiropractor! My companion has something wrong with his neck and has to go there once every 6 weeks. I told myself that I might as well get a massage too because it is free! So I did! Haha. I feel amazing now!

To answer your question Dad; we have not gotten a new bishop yet. They are still finding out who would work out so we are still in a wait for that! I hope to find out next week if i get transferred or not. I don't think I will, I actually hope that I wont! We are finally getting things started here, so I pray that I don't have to leave yet. In a month we will have about 3 people to baptize so if I leave now I would be a little upset to tell you the truth! Haha. If I have to leave it is because God needs me in another place! 

There wasn't too much that went on this week. We taught a lot of people, and we are trying to help the ward. All the members ask a lot of us missionaries. They have asked us to visit everyone on the ward list to see if they live there or not. I was thinking to myself like that isn't our responsibility... at times I feel like I am the "Dad" of this ward! haha. I have to tell the leaders how to do their jobs, and i think it is kinda sad sometimes. We were talking to the First Counselor about who he thought would be the next Bishop and he doesn't really know. I told him it would be him, and he said he has to be a resident of the USA first. Then I told him if that was the case then nobody can be the Bishop of the ward except the one white guy that married a Hispanic girl. The only thins is that he is moving in about 3 weeks... and then he said to me "Well Elder Andersen, it looks like you will be the new Bishop!" and I just laughed and said "No Way I could do that!" Haha. So now when we go to visit all the members in the ward they ask who we think the new Bishop will be and then they all say it will just have to be me. So I really hope they don't call missionaries to be Bishops! I know sometimes in different places they have been called to be like a Branch President, but I have never heard about one being a bishop! All the members say "Hey, you have been here 7 months, so there is a reason you have been here so long, and that reason is to be bishop!" I just laugh. I do  hope I can stay longer in the area. I think I will be here one more transfer and then be out but we will see! 

Not much more I can think of to tell you! I love y'all!!

Have a good week!

Love, Elder Andersen

Letter #63

Hey family,

So this week was really good, of course it did have its down sides, but I wont let the bad things get in the way of an amazing week! We only had 24 lessons, but I believe we have gotten 7 new dates for baptism! The only thing is that they are scheduled for after the next transfer date, so I hope I don't leave this area next transfer. The new people we found are 2 from El Salvador and 2 from Columbia!

Dad, you will be really happy to hear that the ones from Columbia are from Bogota! I let them know that my father served his mission there. They thought that was cool, so then I told them that I am already in their family and they laughed. They did think it was really cool that I had someone connected to their hometown! After I shared with them about the First Vision the guy from Bogota said that the same thing had happened to him too. He said he saw an angel or something like that, but it looked just like the picture of God and Jesus Christ. I just told him that God was preparing him for what he saw and what we shared. Then I invited him to get baptized and he accepted! He went to church that week and loved it! They are definitely getting baptized pretty soon. So Dad your Bogota Columbia mission did me good too :) haha!

The other two from El Salvador are parents of daughter that are members already. The parents aren't members but they want to become one day. We extended them a baptism date also and they accepted too! Their daughter is going on a mission pretty soon and they are a cool family. They were saying that they want to go to BYU-Idaho too. I told them I went there before my mission so they got excited and now they think we will have a party if they went! I joked about how it is "BYU-I DO" because everyone gets married really fast! Then the parents looked at each other and laughed and said that they don't want their daughters going there now! It was a blast being at their house!

To top of the WHOLE week we took the Canos to the temple! Like I have told you in past letters it was Hermana Canos dream to get baptized for her mom there... it came true for her! She did the work for her mom and  I was able to watch the Baptism and the Confirmation (they won't let missionaries do Baptisms for the Dead at the Temple. Some dumb rule that missionaries cant baptize women...? idk why) Anyways, I was the witness and I stood in the circle for the confirmation. Right after that part the spirit was so strong and I looked at Hermana and I saw her balling. She went and changed and after I asked her how she felt after doing the work for her mom, she said that she knew she was there! She felt her presence, and man I almost started crying hearing that! I knew the spirit was so strong, but I just told her that I knew she is here and is happy for what she did! The next day when we visited her she said the whole family told us that they didn't want to leave! They just wanted to stay in the temple all day! It was so sweet! Then they made us empanadas yesterday! It was so good :)

It was a really good week... here are some pictures of this week!

Love y'all

Elder Andersen

 The Missionaries and the Canos Family at the Temple.

 Elder Larson and I (he is my last companion.)

Elder Jarvis and I (my new companion)

Letter #62

Hey Family,

This week has been pretty good. We only had 27 lessons I believe, but we had a lot going on. We found a couple of new people to teach! To respond to Ian's question; we teach a lot of part-member families. We have the most success with them. What we are trying to do is have members invite their friends over when we come to teach. It is going really slow, but that is how our Mission President whats it to go. 

This week we had The Stake Presidency in our ward. Our Bishop just got released (he was only bishop for about a year and a half) We know pretty much what he did to get kicked out, and man I knew there was something wrong with him from the start! The Stake Presidency told us that our Ward is just dead. We know this because they literally do nothing, (we knew this for the last 7 months of being here) They will be helping us out a lot the next couple of months to get something going in our Ward. Lately we have been going threw a hard time! We got really good support from our leaders, and I have a appointment with my Mission President. I was going to tell him what the Bishop was doing, and what has been going on in the Ward, but it seems like he already knows some of it. I am happy that we will start fresh and hopefully be able to help the people in our ward.

This week will be good! We are taking the Canos' to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. So the story I shared with y'all last week about Sister Cano is going to come true! She will be able to get baptized for her mother! We are going Wednesday and I am so excited! To answer Mom's question; We will find out in a couple of months if they have to go back home or not. I really hope they can stay! I feel so bad for them, we practically visit them every day! I call them my parents, they always tell me that they would adopt me and call me their Colombian baby! Haha I told them that I was going to go visit Columbia with them! They want to take me after the mission so that would be super sweet! It is funny, because every time we see them I call her "Mom" and she calls me "hijo" (son) so I feel pretty much like they are my family here! This is definitely my hardest area I have been in, however I think it is also my funnest! I have meet so many people here, and have made so many friends! It is going to tear me apart if I have to leave it soon! I hope I can finish my mission here! :)

Nothing much else really happened this week, but just know that I love y'all and y'all are always in my prayers!

Love, Elder Andersen