Letter # 43

Hey family ~

So good news, I did not go 4 weeks in a row breaking my bike!!! That is so nice not having to worry about it! Hopefully it can stay like this for the rest of my mission! NO MORE BIKE PROBLEMS!!

This week we had a wonderful time! We taught 19 lessons (best in the last 35 weeks) and we also got 3 new baptism dates!! All of them are super cool and I know they are getting baptized! We had some cool miracles! On Thursday we took a member out with us and we went to go visit on a referral that we received from the English Elders. We knocked and this women from Peru answered the door. She was excited we were there and wanted to talk to us. The member talked to her also and we found out that they knew each other about 2 years ago from church. The women and her brother went to church many times and then had to go to Peru to take care of some important things. They came back a couple of months ago and we found them!! The brother accepted a baptism date for 2 weeks away and he will definitely be ready! The sister is super prepared, but she has some doubts about the polygamy and some others church history. We resolved most of them, and she loves when we come over. She also told us that she loves the Book of Mormon! They are super solid, and super nice. We have another baptism set up pretty soon so I am excited to see the Lord's hand in this work!

We are planning on going bowling this week, so we aren't trying to take to much time online. Other than the miracles I have seen this week, it has been pretty good.:) We had interviews with the Mission President and those are always super cool! I have a question for y'all. Would y'all happen to know about the Pre-Adamites?!?!? I heard some things about them from my Mission President and my mind was blown! Then I thought about cavemen, and then I was thinking like... I just don't know! Hopefully y'all will know something about that to help me out. :) I have other doctrine questions that go more into detail but I want to know y'all's opinions on this one first!

Love y'all,

Elder Preston Andersen

This is a picture that a Member took of Preston. 

That is his companion teaching a lesson in the back... 

Preston thought we would get a good laugh out of this picture!!

Letter #42

Hey family,

Yes, I am wearing green, and it is a good thing I am not wearing red :) (My Dad's letter mentioned to wear green for St. Patricks day so he did not get pinched and then he said wearing Red meant you wanted to be kissed when he was a kid.)  Before I forget to say it; Yes I have got my package! I loved it! The blanket works our perfectly! :p haha. I made the cake and ate the beef jerky already! That beef jerky was super good! In the next package you send you should get the green kind of that same brand. One of my old companions got it, and it was like some kind of lime and it was sooooo gooood!! Oh, and the craisins and chocolate covered acacia berries are always good! :) Thanks for those too. :)

Man, the banks are so crazy lately!!!! They won't even allow you to deposit something? They need to take a chill pill! I am not able to access my account anymore. I used to be able to, but not anymore. I think it is still going on but I am not sure. Too bad Crystal is not working at Wells Fargo anymore. I use my debit card about 10 times a month  because we use the MSF cards for groceries. So only if I run out of money or have to fix a bike. AND SPEAKING about bikes, my front tire ripped and I had to get a new one! Luckily for me one of the rich members paid for it. I had seen the rip, so we went back to the apartment and walked to the closest members house. When we got there he asked us "Where are your bikes?!" I said "Well my bike is broken again!" He told me to bring it to him tomorrow morning  and he will get it fixed for me! So I was blessed and $50.00 didn't have to come out of my pocket! I just hope that nothing else happens to my bike and I can end this horrible streak of bike problems!!! haha

I cant believe how many people are going home so soon! That is crazy! Please tell President Larson I am excited for him to set release me when I get home! I would have rather had you dad, but he is a good second! :) haha

So not much else has happened this week. I guess the highlight of the week was my massage!!! The 2nd Counselor of the Mission Presidency is a Massage Therapist. He does missionaries for free! I got the shock treatment, and a massage. He cracked my whole back!!! I have never felt so good in my life! He cracked me in places I never thought could have been cracked! When I come back to visit the mission I am definitely going to visit him because he is a walk-in clinic and he charges $20.00 for a treatment. Man was it heavenly!! I am very thankful to get that because my back has been bothering me since the last transfer. Being in a biking area is the worst! ahah

This week was very boring, so there wasn't that much going on. Hopefully next week I will have something cool to tell y'all! I love y'all!

Love, Elder Andersen 

Letter #41

Hey family!

The only thing that I can remember that happened this week was that my bike broke again! hahaha. The thing that holds my pedals broke!  The metal bar that connects both together snapped in half, and I had to walk my bike home 3 miles! It was a fun day!!! :p haha. So I am taking it in tomorrow to get it fixed! My companion has gone through 6 bikes while on his mission! I blame my bad luck on him!!!!

Another good thing I liked about this week is the Atonement! We learned too much from it! My Favorite scripture now is Alma 42:22!  It talks about there is a law that God cannot break; it's the law of justice. If he were to break the law he would cease to be God. He loves us so much that he gave us mercy through the Atonement of Jesus Christ! I will have to make copies of the paper for y'all! It is my favorite to study in the morning, because when you think about it we don't know ANYTHING!!!!!! I can tell that my Mission President knows so much; yet he tells us that he barely knows anything. I love learning about the Atonement and how to apply it! I will have to teach y'all how deep it is when I get back!

This week is transfers, and as I predicted I am staying! So I am pretty happy. I would love this barrio so much more if we had a better obispo (bishop)! He is making me so angry! haha. I guess there is a rule that missionaries can't bring families to the church for F.H.E. to play sports, and then have a spiritual message at the end! I know it means family HOME evening but if the family isn't going to do it at their house, I thought that it would be better to have it at the church and feel the spirit! Apparently he told us we can't do that!!?!? Would y'all happen to know about that rule or what?!!?!?

Last Monday they threw me a "Surprise Birthday Party". It was really fun! We had root beer floats and cake. Then we watched one of my favorite movies; Ephraim's Rescue!!! So good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I suggest if you haven't watched it yet that you do it!!! The spirit is so strong, and it is so funny too!

This week wasn't too special, but I had fun! Love y'all and hope to hear from y'all later! :)

Love, Elder Andersen

Letter #40

Dear Family,

Sadly, no I didn't get my package on Saturday. Hopefully I will get it today! :) Mom gave me the spoiler alert so I know what it is and I LOVE it!!!! I was so cold last night, so now I will be nice and warm tonight! :) hahaha We didn't do to much on my birthday, just a normal missionary day! We went to Arby's for lunch and then biked in the freezing rain! That day it was a little chilly so I put on a windbreaker. My companion had just a jacket on and when it started to rain he took of his jacket because it is not supposed to be wet I guess. So he rode in freeing rain, I don't know how he survived because I was super cold with a jacket on! He just had on a short sleeve white shirt and a tie! Those Crazy Guatemalans!!! 

And yeah, those Eagle Scout letter are pretty annoying! I just remembered that I still haven't had my Court of Honor! Does that mean I am still not an Eagle!?!!? hahah :p

On Monday when we went out proselyting  we rode our bikes to our appointment and as I was riding my gear somehow got caught in the spokes and bent the whole gear, and everything in the back. I took it into the bike shop the next day and it was supposed to be like $220.00 to fix it!! Since I am a missionary (and then I "Jewed them down a little" more I only ended up paying $158.00 to fix it all.  I went a little more expensive on the rims and got a double layered one.  The guy in the store told me it will need a lot of force to bend this rim and spokes so he said I should be fine for the rest of my mission with it. So I thought I might go expensive this once and not pay like $100.00 bucks every 6 months! So that is how our first couple days went! haha Good thing I am getting my taxes back so my taxes payed for the bike fix! :)

So yesterday as we went to church it was pretty warm, so I wore my shirt sleeve shirt to church under my jacket. On the way home it was the same temp.  and then as we left the house to go out and work I kept the shirt on because it was warm and I didn't think anything of it. When we went to our first house we were sweating because it was a little warmer. We ate food, and shared a lesson and it was an hour tops so when we came out and it was just a little chilly. So we didn't think anything of it and we went to another members house. We were there for an hour and a half helping them with empenadas (btw I have the recipe and I will make a bunch when I get home, they are sooooo good!!) When we left that house it was freezing and drizzling!!!! We rode as fast as we could to our investigators house and she didn't want us to be in the cold so she made us go in her house and we were there about an hour. It was time to go home, and as soon as we stepped our foot out the door you could feel this strong freezing wind!!!!! It was lightly raining and that was freezing too! I would have to guess it was about 35 degrees but with the humidity and the wind in your face it felt like 20!! So we were about 4 miles away from our apartment and the wind was going against us! It was sooo hard! Every mile and a half we stopped at a gas station and stayed inside for about 20 minutes to warm up. And then we would travel another mile and a half and hit up the next one. I thought I was going to get frostbite it was so cold!!!! I so regretted not wearing a sweater that day!!!

This week has been pretty crazy! I love the mission more and more everyday... I don't know if you guys will hate me for saying this, but sometimes I want to be here for the rest of my life! :p haha, One day I will be home so don't worry :p

Love y'all and thanks to all for the birthday wishes!!!

Love, Elder Andersen!

and Melissa say thanks for the birthday wishes on FB :)

Letter #39

Hey family!

Dad, to answer your questions before i forget :p I didn't know Sacramento had the nickname of Camellia City, (funny thing is when I asked the other missionaries, I said it like it was Spanish and they were like whaaa?!?! And they still didn't know it when I said it in English. Pronunciation skills are going out the drain while learning Spanish :) And I don't think we are permitted to donate blood on our missions, so I never had any opportunity, and nobody has asked me if I had. And do tell Tracy and MaiJai to write me! I like letters :) Give them my address :) Tell all the cool youth that i like receiving letters and emails! ahah And yeah, deposit my money in Wells Fargo. Are they still taking out 3 dollars a month?!?! Because I asked if you could talk to them about that but idk if they fixed it or not, cause I am not allowed to check on that so I don't know what's going on right now! Thanks for doing my taxes! :)

This week has been super slow! We had 4 non-productive days but still had 12 lessons. 3 days we didn't teach a single person. We had this funeral that we were in charge of.... we got put in charge of it last second. It was for an Inactive family and they wanted to use the building; so the church allowed them to and then they told everyone to be there at 2. The funny thing was the family didn't show up till 4 so we had to entertain the guests for 2 hours. We played Mormon messages and listened to Mormon Tab! They all were like, what's going on and we didn't even know what was going on! Our bishop was like, just watch videos and keep them entertained; I was so stressed and frustrated that day!  We had some Catholics walk out because they were mad because we didn't have crosses hanged up in our church! And then we had a Muslim leave after a Mormon message video. She asked the sister missionaries what it was about and they said about Jesus and she got mad and left! So it was pretty crazy!!! Over all, it was a spiritual experience, even though it was very unplanned and off on a whim. It was good, there was free food after and it was pretty good!

Cool Experience this week:

We taught one of our super cool investigators -- their names are Paula and Raymundo. They are husband and wife and I thought that they needed a baptism date. So I came up with the scripture in Matthew 11:27 to 30 and it talks about how Jesus' yoke is easy and he can take ours upon him if we learn more about him and come unto him. As I was explaining what the yoke is I just was talking and not thinking what I was saying, and the words just flew out of my mouth. And I told them that the only way Jesus will help our yoke is if we get baptized. When we get baptized, we show him that we are willing to follow him and do what he wants us to do. And I promised them that they were ready and that when they are baptized, all their weight will be helped by Christ and told them that they can get baptized in 3 weeks if they did their part. She was like, you really have confidence in us and we were like, we know y'all are ready. The spirit was super strong and when we left, Elder Cassiano told me I did a amazing job and I'm like, wait what happened, I forgot what I said! ahah I know that the spirit told me exactly what to say in that time of need! This is an example of gift of tongues. I know how to talk good enough; but that time I had no problems talking to them and I said everything clear. I felt like every word popped in my head and I just followed the prompting! It feels amazing when you can really teach lessons according to the Holy Ghost! 

Other than that, my week was good!

Mom and dad, did y'all get my letter? I put the SD card in it; I hope everything is there safe and sound with all the pictures and videos! 

I love y'all! I pray for y'all all the time.

Love Elder Andersen

Letter # 38

Hey Family,

So this week has been pretty slow but has been very cool and very spiritual! This week we had Zone Conference and it was all in Spanish! It was pretty crazy to hear President Ashton talk Spanish after he has served his mission 25 years ago. He sounded very gringo (probably a lot like me) and he was actually pretty good. He knew the grammar and knew most of the words, there were very few words I didn't understand. That helps remind me that there are always things we need to work on... Right!?! The funny thing is that our Mission President was instructed to talk about our future life plans! My companion hated going through that cause he was like ughh I am going home soon and will have to do this! I was thinking and he gave us time to ponder what we want and I still feel like the C.H.P. is what I want to do. The rest of the Conference was amazing! The spirit was super strong and I definitely received alot of revelation for my life and my investigators. One thing we did was teach the Restoration, and President just happend to sit in when we were teaching it. He was falling asleep when we taught so i hope we weren't boring. I hope it was more like he was just tired :p hahah He really commented on how well we are teaching. That was one of our main focuses; to have strong powerful lessons that the spirit can testify about! So we have been practicing it, and he told us that as a mission we are doing pretty good!

This Valentine's Day wasn't too special this year. We had a party and it was supposed to start at 7. My companion and I showed up at 6:45 willing to help with something and showed up to nothing. We were the first ones there... so we set up the tables and the chairs, then all decorations and everything. The next people to show up were the other set of missionaries and after them was the sister missionaries, then the bishop showed up at about 7:30 and started stuff. The other people started showing up at about 830 and food started at about 845. I guess this always happens in our ward. The missionaries do everything and keep everything going! I don't know why, but when you tell Hispanics to be there at 7 they show up at 8 to 830. So just for future reference if you have a party tell them an hour earlier so they can been there kinda on time. haha! After that we went home and I got my package from Mom! :) Thanks!

Church this week was a little weird. The first speaker talked for 5 min so then the bishop got up and told the congregation that Sister Allen (a new missionary) and Elder Andersen will be bearing their testimonies. He did this to make up for the short first talk. So Sister Allen goes up there and doesn't know much Spanish so she talks for like 45 seconds and leaves. So I  go up feeling like I have to take a little bit longer so I bore my testimony and told a story. It was a couple of minutes, but I just think its crazy that whenever there is a time to be made up that he always calls on the missionaries to bare their testimonies. Well I don't really care about it because it's something cool to do, but the bishop expects us to do everything for him. It seems like I like him less and less every week. Hopefully while I am here I can do something to help this bishop be a better person.

Not that much in this weeks email. But I love y'all and keep up all y'all's good work!

Elder Andersen

Letter #37

Hey Family,

So to start off, I am sending a picture of my companion before I forget it! The picture is of Elder Cassiano. He got pooped on by a bird, it was funny so I had to take a picture of it. The funniest thing for me is that he looks like Clint Thomas!!!!

This week was pretty cool! Even though we have been walking around this week; we left our bike at a members house and we could never catch them home to get them back so we just walk everywhere now! haha My feet are getting tired by the end of the day! Oh and Dad, in Columbia did y'all talk in "vos"? (Not Vosotros but vos. It's kinda like Tu but  different). Elder Cassiano is teaching me, and it is so fun to learn! I talk to all the missionaries I know in vos and they don't know it or understand it. I will have to teach you later if you don't know it! haha I know Mexicans don't talk in that form. but I guess all the other countries talk in it!

Whenever we go to Walmart to shop lately I see something about the Winter Olympics! I want to see it soooo bad, and I want to snowboard really bad too! That is one of the things I am going to do when I get home :) Hopefully there is snow at the beginning of May!!! :p Being in this area really makes me appreciate everything I have. My companion is from Guatemala and his family is poor. He tells me all his stories from home and I'm like man I never went through anything like that! I have realized how lucky I am in my life!

This week was super cool! I meet 2 people From Bogota Columbia. I talked to them for awhile, one was an O.Y.M. and one is a member and he loves me! I told the member that my father served in Columbia on his mission, and ever since I told him now he likes me. I guess you have to make good connections with them. I have been meeting the members here and they are so cool! I still don't like the Bishop, but everyone else is super cool!!! There is a family in our area named the Cervantes' and they are so nice. They have 4 girls and one baby boy that's 5 so it's kinda like our family! haha They are from Monterrey Mexico and everything I see them in reminds me of Addicion (a group that follows the Monterrey soccer club around)! They are a die hard fans of them, and every time I go over I make the sign and say Addicion! The member's here are really nice and friendly, and this area the members like going out with the missionaries! We also get a lot of member presents here!

Cool story of the week:

We had this investigator and she is super cool. She wants to get baptized and she wants her husband to have a better relationship and to be better. She invited her husband to talk to us and we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ, and HE LOVES THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!!!! After our lesson he asked "What do I need to read?" So we left him with a bunch of scriptures to read... and he read them in 2 days! We went back and taught the Plan of Salvation and emphasized that we can be together forever. I asked him is this a goal for you; to one day be sealed for eternity with your wife and your kids?!?!? He was like "Yes!" so we told him his first step is baptism and he accepted a date! Sadly he has to work so he can not go to church! But we invited his wife to the devotional, and I would suggest all y'all to go to one too. They are really fun, and soooooo spiritual! We have recent converts give their testimonies and then we have a member talk, this time our member did sooo good! He told about his conversion story and the spirit was strong! It is defiantly a testimony builder to me showing that god loves us and wants all his children to be happy! The church is true! My Mission President tells us that every time he sees us! I know it is! There is no way its false! My testimony has grown so much since being here and I still have so much more to go! I love my mission and I might never want to go home :p ahah 

I love y'all! Keep up the good works!

Love, Elder Andersen

Elder Cassiano