I Will be Going to. . .

Well I´m staying in A Coruña!!  I'm super excited!!  Things are going great here and I'm excited to continue to progress the work forward.  Elder Gentry is getting transferred to the Canaries.  He´ll be a district leader on the island of Grand Canary.  He left on a bus to Madrid last night at 10:30 and it was actually pretty hard to say goodbye.  He´s an amazing missionary and he´s going to do amazing things out there.  I will be receiving Elder Smith!! There are 3 Elder Smith's in the mission so I have no clue who he is or anything.  So we shall see at 1:23 this afternoon when his train rolls in!  I´m excited, nervous, yeah I'm super nervous to train the area but I´ll be fine.  I think I know the area well enough.  We´ll find out. 

Nadya's (found out I've been spelling that wrong the whole time) baptism was incredible!!!!
It was really short because she only had an hour but it was powerful!  We weren't  expecting many people because a lot of people have stuff going on like work and stuff on Friday mornings but 30 people showed up.  It was incredible!!!!!!  The support from the rama was amazing.  Thank you so much for the prayers.  The Lord has answered them.  

The baptismal font

Nadya's baptism!!! 

The thumbs up one is my favorite picture of all time!!!!! 

I love it. It makes me so happy!! 

Thanks for what you said about my attitude because this week was rough.  Besides Nadya's baptism, we had a super rough week.  We lost basically all our investigators and only have a mom and her daughter.  I have been praying so hard for the help of the Lord. I can't do this alone and I know he´ll be here for me but I'm still scared.  Thanks for your support.

 Spring break sounded awesome!!! I'm so excited to hear how softball goes for hannah and sounds like an awesome couple days in Salt Lake!  Thanks you so much for all the letters everyone!!!!  It was amazing to hear from you all!!!!  I hope things go great in Hunter's elections!! and aww Sophie is so cute!!  I miss her too.. 

Well Monday we had 2 lessons. The first we are working on activating a couple young single adults named Mario and Ari.  Mario was the ward mission leader a year or so ago and he is a stud but when they started dating they went inactive and are struggling so we're helping them get back so we had a lesson on the Savior and read out of Alma 7.  It was really good!! The spirit was strong!!  We also met with Luis.  We taught him about the temple some more and we are helping him to get there to do baptisms.  We have a branch temple trip in May but he can't go so he's going to try to go in the summer!  We're excited for him!!  Tuesday we contacted a lot but nothing.  We literally talked to everyone.  EVERYONE.  and nothing.  We had one lesson all day, our others fired us and it was just super rough.  We had a lesson with Wilson the preacher from that church, but since he won't read the Book of Mormon we´re probably going to drop him soon because he can't receive an answer if he won't try it.  He will be coming to conference though so we´ll see how that goes.  Wednesday was the same story, one lesson all day and just a super rough day but that one lesson was extremely good!!  It's the friend of the Relief Society President and the friend's daughter. Their names are Josefa and Cindy. We had an amazing lesson with them and we had 2 members there (the ward mission leader came cause we needed a man) and it was so cool to see the members get super excited about the work!!  They got really into the lesson and it's really the first time I've seen it because not many members have accompanied us so that was cool! They came to church and things are going well with them.  Thursday, we ate at a members house and that was good to build relationships with them but after that our lessons fell through, back up plans fell through, and it was another rough day.  We did have one lesson with a guy named Priz and is was interesting.  We didn't have anything else basically all day. 

Friday we had Nadya's baptism though and that was incredible!!  We had Luis give a talk and he did great and Nadya was super excited!!  She said when she got in the water it was cold, but when she came up out of water after being put under it was super warm and then she bore her testimony on how she knows this church is true and it was so cool!!!  I was a witness and it was so cool to watch her go under and then come up with the biggest smile ever!  Sunday I gave her the Gift of the Holy Ghost and that was an amazing experience!  It was amazing to feel the power of the gift of tongues because we speak in the usted form as missionaries, but blessings have to be given in the tu form. I have never spoken in the tu form very well but the words just flowed out.  It was an incredible experience!!  We met with Luis and Leslie a little later (Leslie still can't be baptized, but were getting there) she has an amazing testimony and she was like so how can a learn more about the gospel and so we talked to her about doing the little things and reading and praying daily.  There is no doubt in my mind she will be baptized someday.  I just hope it's sooner than later.  We also met with Mario and Ari again and had a lesson on repentance and he is doing really well.  He really has desires to change.  She doesn't have those desires quite as much but he does and I'm very excited to continue working with him!  We have noche de hermanamiento which is basically Branch Family Home Evening every Friday, and none of our investigators showed up.. which was sad but it was a lot of fun to hang out with the members!  We talked with Davy and Lorena that night (the people who live above us) and we shared "other sheep I have which are not of this fold" in John and 3 Nephi and they said the next day that they've been thinking a lot about that and so they are coming along.  "poco a poco" as we say. (little by little)  We had a visit with Raquel on Saturday and she said it was an answer to her prayers to have us come by because she had a terrible week and she was praying that we would come by and so that was cool to see that the spirit truly does guide us to where we need to be. Then we ate with Davy and Lorena during medio dia. Really good food!! but then after lessons all fell through, lots of contacting, and nothing.  Not a single other lesson.  It was really hard and then we found out Elder Gentry was leaving the next day so we were up all night packing.  I'm super tired right now cause we also had the time change that night and so it was super rough.  Sunday was good!  Church was good we had Josefa and Cindy there, gave Nadya the Holy Ghost.  Solid day at church!  After, we went to a family's house and ate there and then the ward mission leader took us to his house.  They all wanted to say goodbye to Elder Gentry so that's kind of what yesterday was.  Getting ready for him to leave and saying goodbye to people. A rough week, but a super good week.  I'm nervous for next transfer but I know the lord is in control. I love you all and i hope you have an amazing week!!!  Thank you so much for everything!!! 

((Hugs)) and kisses,

Elder Anderson

¡El reino de dios o nada!

This plaza opened last Monday!! It's near our piso and it's so cool!

The District! 

Family Letters

Thank you so much for all the letters!!!!!  It meant the world to me to receive all these!!!!  I love you all and I'm so sorry I can't reply to all of them!!  Thank you so much!!!

Week 18

Jolín.  This transfer flew by.  It's week 6 of my 3rd transfer and we find out our fates on Saturday.  Elder Gentry has been here since September so he will probably leave but you never know so were excited to see!  I'm so glad McKay loved his letter and I thought he would love if i did that:)  Yes, it's been 4 months this week!!  My "cumple mes" or my monthly birthday (since i was "born" on my mission on November 26th) is this week!!  Crazy.  

Here I am at four months and I will finally consider myself bilingual.  I'm getting so much more confident with my Spanish!!  I can speak in the subjunctive form which has been super tough for me but I can finally speak in it and I'm working on a couple more forms.  Obviously I can work on more vocabulary but I consider myself bilingual now which is huge:)  It's been amazing to see the power of the Lord in this work and know that the gifts of the Spirit are real. I have been pleading for the gift of tongues and gift of interpretation of tongues and I have been so blessed!!   Yes, Hannah did write me about her country report and I'm so glad she did amazing!!  I actually haven't had natilla but it sounds delicious!  What part of Spain is it from?  That's exciting for Hunter!!  Is he playing city league or what?  and thanks!  Please keep me posted on the varsity team I'm super curious as to how they do this year!  That is so cool for Marcus!!!  I'd love to see that and I can't wait to hear them when I get back.  By that time they'll be famous and I'll hear them on buses here though. 

Aww.. tell McKay I'm sorry to hear about his broken hand!!  I hope he gets feeling better!  Wow this year flew by!!  That's going to be crazy with elections!!!  I hope everyone makes it. Good luck to all! 

This week was good!!!  Despite the frustration and heartache sometimes it's been amazing to feel the love and support of our Savior. I read Moses 7 on a bus to Lugo.  I was feeling pretty down.  I was alone because I was heading out for companion exchanges and it had been a rough day but as I read the verses where the Lord weeps because of the people and Enoch asks him how canst thou weep? and the Lord replies, Thy brethren, they are the workmanship of my hands.  This overwhelming feeling of love and peace came over me.  Our Father in Heaven loves us and truly does weep for us when we hurt.  He loves us more than we can imagine.  We are the workmanship of the God of this universe and we can't even begin to imagine his love for us.  I felt a renewed commitment to work hard to bring back my brothers and sisters to our Father.  All he wants is his children back so that's what I'm here to do:)... bring them back.  

We had our final two lessons with andres this week.  Just trying anything possible to spark a feeling or a desire in him but nothing.  So we are dropping him for a month and then trying again in May.  Bob, our friend is super flojo (basically means super iffy when it comes to showing up to lessons) but we are working on an addiction recovery plan with him and were starting with faith in the Savior.  We found a new investigator in the street named Ramon!  He trusts us so much and he's great.  It was funny when we contacted him and during our street lesson he stopped someone and had them take a picture of him with us and then he had us sign the Book of Mormon. hahahaha  That felt super weird but hey, whatever works to get new investigators.  He's out of town for a few days but he´ll be back and he´s going to progress well!  We've been working a lot with Luis  and he's been helping us with street contacting and he's bringing friends for us to teach and he's just a stud!  We lost a lot of investigators though.  Jose can never come to lessons and he is struggling to progress but he´ll come along eventually!!  We found a new investigator named Enrique, a 17 year old.  We taught him one lesson and he accepted a baptismal invitation.  He's getting along really well with one of the priests who accompanied us to the lesson and it's looking promising.  We haven't met with him since Saturday (our lesson with him was Saturday) but we will so were excited!  We have done a lot of contacting with some success but not much and a lot of our investigators are struggling.  The work is kinda slow but its been good. 

Now the best news of all.. NADIAS GETTING BAPTIZED FRIDAY!!! The interview went well and we are set to go!!  She will be baptized Friday morning and receive the Holy Ghost Sunday at church.  It's for sure going to happen and we are so excited!!!!  First baptism of the mission!!  We don't know who she wants to baptize her yet so I'll let ya know next week but we are sooo excited!!!  Thanks for your prayers for her.  It's been amazing to see them answered!!!

Although it's been a tough week at times it's been good.  There have been some members who have been helping a ton and the new ward mission leader is amazing.  Things are looking up here.  There is A LOT of work to do but Elder Oaks said with the Lords work, the power behind is always greater than the task ahead.  I'm super excited and even if I leave, I will leave the area better than I found it.  The Lord's in charge and he's got it all under control. 

Spiritual thought for the week: In the CCM Elder Tad R. Callister came and spoke to us on the great apostasy.  He said that when an army wants to siege a city - what is the first thing they do? Cut off communication.  Well, the adversary did likewise.  The adversary changed the manner of prayer to cut off heavenly communication.  This week I have absolutely loved to see people in the first lessons pray for the first time to their Father in Heaven who just wants to talk to us.  It's been amazing to see the start of their communication with him.  I love teaching the principle of prayer and witnessing that.  

Thanks for all your support and for your prayers!!!  I love and miss you too and don't worry it doesn't make me homesick to hear that you miss me.  I love you!!!!!  ¡¡¡Espero que ustedes tengan una buena semana!!!  Thanks for everything!! 

Love,

Elder Anderson

¡El reino de Dios o nada!

Week 17

This week was rough to be honest.  Numbers were very low.  Lots of people not showing up to lessons, back up plans not working, so we would go contact and no one would listen to us.  José we can rarely meet with, we moved his fecha to the 12th of April and he is really struggling to find time to meet.  We found some people with potential but it was just a long hard week but at the same time, I can't even describe how happy I am.  I have worked hard.  I have been trying to be the best missionary I can be and the Lord has blessed me for it.  As I  strive to be consecrated and fully committed to the work he has blessed me with the gift of tongues and also with the ability to grow as a missionary.  I feel self-sufficient, I can communicate better, I can follow the Spirit better than ever, and I have learned to take adversity head on and keep pushing through.

Monday we had one lesson with José and it went pretty well.  He has desires to be baptized but we just need to meet more.  Tuesday, helped Raquel move her mom in a wheelchair down all the stairs and then later back up.  That was quite the workout.  We taught a lady from brasil and she spoke portuguese but it was amazing as we were able to communicate super well with her.  We have been asked to commit people to baptism in the first lesson and so we invited her and she accepted, but we haven't been able to meet with her since, so we're gonna keep trying but there is potential there. The rest of the day nobody else could meet and so we contacted a lot and nothing worked.  Rough day.  We also had a lesson with a preacher from this other church.  He's great and is a lot of fun to talk to.  One day he´ll be baptized.  We really enjoy those lessons!  Wednesday we had a couple street lessons but they didn't seem too interested and we haven't had contact with them since.  We also visited Raquel and helped her with her mom again and had a lesson in her doorway because we couldn't find a man to go with us but another good thing that has been happening is I feel like I can communicate a lot better than I could a few weeks ago and I can actually participate and lead lessons so that has been a major blessing!

We've been working a lot with Luis, the recent convert, and he is a stud!  We go contacting with him sometimes and teach him other times.  He's getting ready to go to do baptisms the first week of may and he has been progressing so well!  He wants to serve a mission and it would be incredible if he did.  To leave his studies, only member in his family, his dad doesn't want him to but he is going to try anyways.  He is an amazing example to us all.  We met with him Friday and also last night (Sunday).  Saturday we found a lady in the street - we were teaching her and she's like yeah, I've been to your church a lot!  and we said oh really have you seen this book? She said yeah I have one!  So we asked what do you think of it? and she's like oh its true!  It's the word of God!  So we invited her to be baptized but turns out she was baptized in Peru and is already a member.  She is just a less active and we have no records of her on the ward list but we're going to work on re-activating her!  We also met with Davy and Lorena and they are planning on moving to Spokane Washington to live with Lorena's sister.  They talked about the culture here in Spain and how its not family friendly and they really want to leave to get to a better environment for their son.  So, good for them, but its going to be sad.  They're great friends of ours and its sad to see them leave.

I love every opportunity I have to testify of the fact that if the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, and then testify I know these things are true!  It's the most amazing feeling ever!!  I love this work. It was a great week progression wise for me. Thanks for everything!!!  I love you all!!!

((Hugs)) and kisses,

Elder Anderson

El Reino de Dios o Nada

Week 16

Yeah, the Charly situation was super awkward but it will definitely not be the last of awkward situations in the field! Our branch mission leader just got released.  We are super excited though because our new branch mission leader not only served as the branch president a year or so ago, he also served as a missionary here years ago.  He is an amazing man and we are super excited!!! His is going to be great.

That's crazy that you ran across the travel show about Santiago!!  We saw some people who I think were pilgrims who hiked there and the town of Santiago is amazing!!  Super old cobblestone streets, super old buildings, it's sweet!!  The Cathedral was amazing!!  It was a huge testimony builder too because we went in and they had a worship service going on and during it a ton of tourism and selling things off to the side, and a giant golden statue of Santiago (James the apostle).  It felt weird having tourism during a meeting, and everything just felt a lot different.  It was super cool historically and the architecture was magnificent but the spirit just was not there and it was a huge testimony builder.  Something funny that happened was we were down below in this little hallway underneath and these people were praying to the box that supposedly has James bones in it while 6 missionaries from the true church were standing right behind them.  It was really super interesting to watch.                                                    
                                                                                                         Santiago de Compostela Cathedral

left to right in the picture of the 6 of us: Elder Bercerra from Barcelona (serves in 

Santiago), Elder Gomez from Texas (A Coruña), Elder Vasquez from Barcelona (A Coruña), Elder Delgado born in Ecuador, lived in Spain most of his life (Santiago), Elder Anderson, and Elder Gentry!

Madrid was amazing!! and the things Elder Texiera taught us about street contacting we have been doing.  He taught us to go up to people, say we invite you to mormon.org, then if they look at the card say, among other things, my name is Elder Anderson and start a conversation, explain what we do, our message, and then make sure when setting appointments to get addresses and give them options like, "do you have time weekends or weekdays? mornings or afternoons? 6 or 7?"  We have been doing it exactly as he told us and we have been getting a lot of potential investigators from this new method of contacting. 

To answer your question about our investigators.  To be honest this was a really really rough week. First off, Francisco. He made some inappropriate comments to some women in the branch and one of the members (a father who is an absolutely amazing guy) pulled him off to the side and said please have more respect and leave those things outside of a church, its one thing to say those things in a discoteca but in a church, please don't.  Now this member is amazing and if I would have anyone talk to an investigator to correct behavior it would be him. Francisco stormed out of the capilla and the other elders saw him on the street Monday night, he gave them his book of Mormon, all the pamphlets, everything, and said he's never coming back.  We got him to come to talk to us Tuesday and he went off saying how that man is a terrible person, he should be able to say whatever he wants, that he is a "oveja negra" (black sheep) and he doesn't belong here, nor does he need it.  We used President Uchtdorf's  "Come Join with Us"  talk and said we're all from different backgrounds and we're all different people but we all have one thing in common, testimonies of Jesus Christ and the need to follow him.  But he said he's done and he´s not coming back.  So we lost him.  It was pretty sad but he wasn't humble at all and we don't know what would have happened otherwise.  The member feels bad and is trying to contact him and tell him to come back (which just shows why this gospel is true... this member understands the worth of a soul, and can forgive. He just wants to help him come unto Christ.) but yeah that was rough.  So no more Francisco for now.  We may get him back eventually we don't know. With Ciro, he won't come to church, we have tried and tried and tried and he just will not come, so he will no longer be getting baptized.  José has had some serious problems with his home and is now completely out of money and can never meet.  He almost came to church but this guy he shares a piso with cut his finger off so José had to take him to the hospital at 4 in the morning Saturday night. That just explains our week.  The weirdest things happen.  So he wont be baptized yet.  We might have a lesson with him tonight but we don't know we shall see and we may try and shoot for the 29th for a baptism but we will see.  Last, Nadia. Oh thank heavens we have Nadia.  She is golden!!  50 year old lady who has a testimony.  Incredible lady. She is still going to be baptized for now.  Her interview is next Friday and as long as things go well she will be baptized the 28th.  She only has two hours available on Sundays and she literally runs to church (a half hour run) comes to the last part of sacrament, goes to part of Sunday school, and then a half hour run back to her work. but she does it because she has a testimony.  We have been trying super hard to get someone to pick her up in a car but no one will yet, but she's amazing.  We are super excited for her plus, the Russian warrior son I supposedly look like is coming to A Coruña in June so I plan on baptizing him as well haha.  Things are good so far with her!!

Carnival ended last week! it was nuts.  The parties here were insane and the contacting was ridiculously harder than normal and its already super tough. It was so weird to see all the people in these odd costumes and just going crazy in the streets.  We had a super rough week with numbers.  Not many lessons, a lot of street contacting time, and very few street lessons as well.  Just no one wanted to listen this week and it was a super super rough week but we are still super happy!!  as always:)  The weather has been amazing!!!  It feels like spring here too it's been great!!!

Thanks for always keeping me updated on stuff at home! i cant believe I'm halfway around the world as well!! thanks for everything!! and the package don't worry. no rush on it. Just when you can!! and yeah tell me the name of the cookies!! maybe i have!! 

As for other random things that happened this week, from people throwing fireworks at us, a giant fire in this garbage can thing that goes deep in the ground, and getting yelled at last night for supposedly trying to break in to a building (I had my hands on the handle to the door and this guy came running out screaming and yelling if he ever sees us again he's calling the cops and all this stuff) haha.  We were talking over the intercom with some members. Crazy week but it's amazing because it's like you can feel the prayers of the members from all over the world.  I feel so safe and I know all will be well.  I love it and it's great to have the Lord on your side!  I love this work and even though it's super hard at times and discouraging I'm still extremely happy.  The happiness is amazing and even if I only baptize one Russian lady my entire time in Spain, I know I helped with bringing one soul unto him.  The work is tough, but worth it.  People have their agency, and its tough, I wish they didn't sometimes.  The gift of agency is beautiful it's what we fought for in the pre-earth life and one day every person will look back and realize they should have talked to us, or shouldn't have stopped talking to us.  But most importantly everyone eventually in one way or another will be brought to the knowledge of our Savior and I just want to do it for them now so they have the opportunity to choose now before its too tough.  This is so important.  It's the only thing that truly matters, forming eternal families, bringing His children back to Him.  He wants them back and I'm so glad I can help.  Even if it's only just one.  I love it out here!!!!  Love you all!!!

((Hugs)) and kisses,

Elder Anderson

¡El reino de Dios o nada!

March 3, 2014

Oh my goodness what a week!!   We both got to spend a day with a General Authority this week!  I'll tell you about that in a little bit.  Yes, I met the couple from the MTC!  They gave me the gift and thank you so much!!  I'll be needing it in the next few months because I have been writing in my journal nightly so you´ll be proud of me! 

As for your questions, yeah, I'll probably be buying some sweet futbol cleats while I'm here!! haha its super fun and we play every Saturday mornings when it isn't raining and we bring members and investigators.  We play to help build relationships between members and investigators and unity between us and members, so it's strengthening a lot and helps the investigators feel comfortable!  We actually have never played sports on p-day.  We´re always out seeing stuff around A Coruña.  Last week we went to the Torre de Hercules and this week I'm actually emailing from Santiago (which means James in Spanish).  It's in our district and so 6 of us elders (the other two from A Coruña and the 2 from Santiago) we're emailing now and then heading to the giant Cathedral de Santiago today.  It's the giant cathedral that supposedly James the apostles bones are buried.  That one that i guess people do that big hike or journey to or whatever that is but it's going to be way cool - the cathedral is huge!! 

It rains a ton!!  Oh hey, it's raining right now.  We live in Galicia so it's just normal for it to rain daily but the weather has been getting a lot better lately!!  We've had sunny days and we could see stars last week!!  It's been hailing the past two days and it's supposed to be really bad weather this week!!  That's okay its gonna get beautiful in springtime!!  This place is always wet but its super green.  It's gorgeous!! 

This week was great!!  A rough week but when you're serving the Lord it's tough to be sad. We had the 4 baptismal dates but now only 3.  Ciro, who works in the ocean, we lost contact with him for two weeks, but yesterday we said a prayer right before we left the piso that we could have contact with him and we came walking up to his portal (by the way the buildings all have portals.  All the bottom floors are businesses and then the other floors are pisos so we get peoples' "direction" or address and they give us which portal and then which piso for example, ours is Ronda de Outeiro 19, 6º, so portal 19 piso 6.  We came walking up to his portal and out walked Ciro.  We set a lesson for tonight and he said I'm so excited for you to come by to spiritually feed me.  So we're having a lesson on feasting on the words of Christ and how he can spiritually feed himself with 3 things.  We call it the OLA lessons (ola is hello in Galego haha) but it stands for Orar, Leer, Asistir.  Or, in english, Pray, Read, Attend. Helping him become self-sufficient spiritually.  Francisco is doing good.  He is still set to go for the 15th of March and is progressing well!  He´s out of the hospital and is keeping his commitments so hes great!  Nadia literally runs to church every week but she has an amazing testimony and is so excited to be baptized.  That one is good to go for the 28th of March!  José, we have a lesson with tonight and he is doing well.  We aren't 100% sure so far if his current fecha (or baptismal date) will work but we will start figuring out tonight.  He's been sick but he's been reading so that's good!  As for our other investigators - we've been working with one named Bob and he knows nothing about God so we are starting from literally the basics.  We had a lesson on the Godhead and who God and Jesus Christ are. Tonight we will be teaching him about the Savior more and watching Como Hallar Fe (Finding Faith in Christ) with him and reading parts of Mosiah 3.  It's been amazing to see his growth in his relationship with God already.  We may try to help him be baptized at the end of April but we´ll see.  
We're struggling to have contacts with our other investigators because its Carnival this week and the town has been growing crazy and everyone is partying.  Fireworks.  People marching around with drums and whistles and gosh its crazy.  It's a week long festivo so its been tough but it's all good.  The work is progressing regardless.  The branch is doing pretty good.  It's struggling and attendance is down.  The people are nice but just like anywhere have their problems.  But that's what we´re here for - to help those who haven't made covenants yet make them and strengthen those who have.  So we´re working hard!!  We have 70 - 85 members attend weekly and the primary is small but there's quite a few for how small we are.  We taught the young men the Plan of Salvation the other week!  We have a really good relationship with the Young Men's President.  Juan, the one I sent the picture of me with him, to you, that's him).  So we're doing what we can to strengthen the ward.  This branch is awesome and even though we have a lot of struggles that's what we´re here for - to strengthen.

 We got to go to Madrid this week!!  We left Wednesday on a train and got there that night (it's like an 8 hour train ride).  It was so weird being down in Madrid and going to "Holy Pavones" as Elder Gentry and I call it (haha Pavones is the metro stop with the Temple and MTC). Thursday was the "mission tour" with Elder Texeria of the 70.  We all got to go give him a handshake, and yeah, I totally shook his hand.  He said, "Que tal, Elder Anderson" and gave me a hug.  Que tal basically means "what's up" haha, and then a little later during lunch break Elder Gentry and I were washing our hands and so was Elder Texiera and he asked us "is this useful? are you learning anything?"  It was so cool!!  Just to see his humility and realize he is a normal guy.  But the training was INCREDIBLE.  He taught us how in Europe our best finding tool has been and always will be street contacting.  He taught us a better way to street contact using the mormon.org cards and then taught us we need to "keep digging where we have already found gold" and taught us to ask our investigators and members who we can pray for and then pray with them for whoever they say and then work our way to teach those people.  He promised we would triple our number of new investigators.  It was an incredible meeting.  We also got to go to the temple after!!!  The Madrid zones go every transfer but in the north we can't.  So it was sooo amazing to be able to go!!!  Anyway, this week was amazing and something I have learned is this:  We are sent on missions at such a young age to learn how to use this great responsibility of the Priesthood that we have been given at such a young age.  We have a responsibility as Priesthood holders to minister.   On our missions is when we truly learn to let our own desires go and learn to minister, and to serve others.  A mission is "lifelong Priesthood holder prep" to learn to serve others.  I've done a lot of studying on Priesthood as we´ve been working to strengthen the new recent converts who have recently been ordained to the Priesthood.  

I love you all!!!!  This church is true!!  I love this work and I am so happy!!!!!!  Thanks for your support!!!  and thanks for the weekly quotes mom:)  I love you!!!

((hugs)) and kisses,

Elder Jarrett Anderson

El reino de dios o nada!