Well it was just another AMAZING week as usual!!!

Well it was just another AMAZING week as usual!!!  The work is going incredible here and I am so glad to hear that all is going amazingly well at home! 

Wow what a week.  You know, I'm getting good at recognizing the little miracles and the Lord's hand in all of this.  This week also was filled with a lot of the members hands in the kitchen, feeding us.  Ever since we got the members back on our side and loving us things have gotten out of hand.  In the last 13 days we have eaten with members 11 of them. and 7 of those days we had at least 2 meals.  It all culminated with us just about dying on Thursday night.  We had 4 meals with members.  One with Bishop during media dia, another after a lesson with an investigator in a member's house, then another with another member after an investigator lesson, and then in the house of the Lopez.  My "gift of stomachs" came in handy and I downed 2 plates at each house and I came off conquerer.  We live by the rules of  1- we eat anything and everything they put on the plate and  2- if they ask if you want more you accept it.  The quickest way to a member's heart is pounding their food and we have done well.  But it gets difficult sometimes.  Asking for more space in my stomach is a frequently offered prayer here in B4 and that is not a joke.  I have literally said a prayer multiple times and in the end, I'm alive, still skinny, and with the love of the members.  Life is good. 

Miguel is still doing well!  Taught him lesson 2 and we gave him a blessing yesterday cause he got sick and he is just doing amazing. 

Cristian is doing incredible as well.  He came to church and loved it!  He is awesome and is progressing so well.  He should be on baptismal date by the end of this next week. 

We found a new family, the 17-year-old brother is a member and just moved from Guatemala.  We are now activating him and teaching his older sister and her family.  She is friends with a lot of sisters from the ward so the ward is helping out a ton and I am so excited to see how things go with them.  The sister isn't married and so it will probably be somewhere around a year before she can get baptized.  I may or may not still be in Spain before it can happen but I'm just glad I'm a part of the finding them and helping them start on the path. 

That's been a difficulty serving in Spain, where it can take anywhere from 8 months to over a year to get married.  If we find out someone isn't married, I know I'll never get to see their baptism which, honestly, is really sad sometimes but it's okay because I am a seed planter and just a first guide on the path.  I'm like a workhorse and I'm just here to get to work and find everyone who is ready for this message.  It's hard, but so worth it.  So so worth it. 

Graciela is doing amazing.  She is reading, praying and coming to church weekly.  She has a lot of friends in the church, and her fireball character is gone.  She is just so nice and happy now. She's doing amazing. 

Anahi and Javier. Anahi is struggling with some things and the mother has not been very supportive of church attendance. Javier is struggling and always says, "I have a lot on my brain". I just don't know what to do.  Just keep them in your prayers.  I'll let you know more next week as I find out more.

The Buenos have been struggling a lot lately.  We went over last night and he just let everything out.  He has no one to talk to and we just talked for like an hour last night and then gave him a blessing at the end of the night.  Pray for them.  They are still together and plan on staying that way so we just hope to help them communicate more and start being happy.

It was another incredible week though!!  I say it all the time but I love this work.  It means everything to me.

So for the spiritual thought this week I wanted to talk about the Plan of Salvation.  It's something that is so basic to our beliefs that sometimes we forget the value of the knowledge we have.  The only thing I want to mention from the plan is our potential and how we need to remember who we are and what we have the potential to become. We lived with Heavenly Father before but we were not like Him.  The entire reason we came to this Earth was to gain a body so that we could be like Him.  If we can remember this simple truth, that we are on the path to godhood, on the path to become what we were born to become, we will be able to live on a higher plane than the world.  Remember your potential, and always keep that eternal perspective.  As we bring our thoughts to that level, our daily lives will improve, we will have a purpose in all we do, and we will have the ability to fight off temptation better.  I know that we are sons and daughters of the living God.  I am so grateful for that knowledge.  I love you all!!!!  Thanks for everything!!!!

Elder Anderson

¡El reino de dios o nada!

Transfers!!!!

I am so excited to hear you sing mom, keep working hard!!  I am telling everybody here that you will be singing in conference!:)  P-days have been cleaning the piso and a lot of cleanup we have an older piso and we have been working hard to get it looking good again and finally today we said it's finished!!  Last week we went to a Bible shop and bought bibles.  So that was fun:)

Thank you so much for your thoughts mom!! Sincere prayer, really talking to our Father is something I have been working on a ton lately.  I'm getting better!!!:)

Well it was transfer week last weekend..  It snuck up on us and we didn't see it coming honestly.  We´ve been working so hard and it's been such an incredible transfer and it flew by and it's already over.  We will be staying together for another transfer!!!!:)  We are so excited!!!! 

Another week where not a ton happened..  But we kept busy.  Lots of contacting and lots of trying to find people but we just haven t seemed to find the people who are ready yet.  It's frustrating sometimes and it's discouraging to be working so hard and not seeing the "fruits of our labors" but it's molding us and shaping us and the Lord wants to know how committed we are to Him so we just keep going :) 

We found a guy named Byrum this week.  He is super cool!  We've only had one lesson with him and he really liked it.  He wanted to know more and was really nice so we just hope he starts answering the phone. 

Our only other investigator is Miguel.  The Husband of Silvia, the member.  He has been progressing extremely well.  He originally started to listen because he wanted to fix things with his wife.  They were struggling in their relationship because they were separated and now they are getting back together.  Every time we go to teach him he has more and more and more interest and he told us the other day in a lesson that he really now has his own desires to know if it's true or not.  It was incredible.  All of our hard work is paying off with the changing of one life and the saving of one relationship.  It's amazing to see him changing and them being together more.  They are together all the time and they call each other "cariño" which means sweetheart in Spanish and it makes me so happy!!!!  His life is changing and he is doing so well and it makes Silvia happy as well and it is bringing the true joy the gospel brings into both of their lives as they begin on their journey to become an eternal family.

Honestly it was just a week of hard work and learning what we were truly made of. We have such an amazing relationship as a companionship.  He is an incredible missionary and an incredible friend. 

Sorry for not much this week!!!  We don't have a ton of time either.  The Hermanas got taken out and we are bringing two Elders in to replace them so we are helping them get into the area and taking them around. 

For the spiritual thought this week I wanted to do one other activity.  I love hearing from you guys and your testimonies. This week I want you guys to read a few stories of Jesus and I want you to search for his attributes or his "character".  I once heard a quote from supposedly Neil A. Maxwell.  I'm not sure if it's from him but I liked the quote nonetheless. "There would have been no atoning sacrifice without the character of Christ."  He was a perfect man, not only does perfection, or sinless include what he did not do, but also what he did do and the man he was.  I found one example this week in John 2:23-25.  The Savior was not concerned with popularity, nor finding just whoever to follow Him.  There were many who believed on Him merely based on sight.  What they had seen with their eyes.  But what the Savior wanted rather than a conversion based on sight, was a conversion based on true testimony given from the Father, so he did not "commit himself unto them" Jesus was focused more on what was right than what was popular.  So now go find your own examples of what kind of a man the Savior was and why He was perfect in deed.  I know He lives!  He is our perfect example.

Have an amazing week!!!!:) 

Elder Anderson

Our Savior Lives

Wow.  What a week for you guys!!!  Stake Conference sounds incredible and I got jealous but then I remembered we had an amazing Zone Conference last week and everyday is filled with just being uplifted and spiritually filled and I was extremely grateful the Lord blessed you at home with the experiences and the Spirit you have been having.  I will keep Sister Levine in my prayers. 

 Pres. Jackson spoke about preparation in the Zone Conference. and preparation is essential before any act performed unto the Lord.  So keep it up!! 

Wow.  I cannot believe Janzen will be taking off soon!!!!  Get me his stuff.. the first part of the mission (at least after the MCT for me) was the hardest time in my life, but the most sacred time of my life.  I would not be half of who I am now without A Coruña.  I am so excited for him!!! 

This really is the best two years.  It may be tough some times, but that's why faith is so important.  Something I feel like I've lacked, but with faith in the Lords promises, that's when we see miracles in our lives. 

Thank you for your testimony of a mother.  I don't know if you understand the strength and power of a mothers testimony for her son.  So thank you. 

Well this week wasn't anything to crazy but we are just having an incredible time out here in B4!!!  Life is so good.  Life is perfect.  We decided we love hard times and the change in attitude has made all the difference.  We kind of, in a way, prayed last week to be able to understand the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement better and we had a week of dropping investigators, more finding, losing investigators, but pure bliss, happiness and joy.  Because, amidst the hardship, the Lord, according to our faith, blesses us with miracles and truly blesses us with the utmost joy the gospel truly brings.  We were waiting for a family in a park the other day and they weren't showing up, so instead we contacted a guy who sat down on his suitcase and we taught him lesson one.  Later the family showed up.  The hand of the Lord was there.  

Miguel, the husband of Sylvia is progressing extremely well and is beginning to gain his own personal desires to follow the Lord and not only try and fix his relationship with his wife.  We contacted a Spaniard family on a bench one night and a couple nights later went and had a lesson with them.  The wife is extremely excited and says she is going to read and study the book and "of course I'll pray!"  The husband believes in science, and doesn't want the Book of Mormon but says he loves to listen.  They have a 16 or 17-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter.  This is the first time I have ever taught a Spaniard family my entire mission.  This doesn't happen often and we have been so blessed.  Jose Luis and Imaculada. We have been meeting with Christian and he loves listening.  He's way cool.  Anahi (Javier's daughter) is struggling right now so please keep her in your prayers.  She's going through some teenage stuff and it's stressing Jajvier out but it will all be good.  She's a good girl and we had a really good lesson about "stand ye in holy places" the other day.  

We had a rough day of contacting and nothing but that night we were in a park and there was absolutely nobody there but we saw one person sitting on a bench.  We went over and it was a 17-year-old kid.  We talked to him, he invited us to sit down and he listened to lesson one!  Heavenly Father lives and loves his children.  This week was incredible.  Nothing to crazy happened but we have been so blessed. 

Amazing week!!!!!!  I love you all. 

For the spiritual thought this week:  A goal I have is to develop "unshakable faith" and the way to this is found in Jacob 4:6. The answer is simple, and is something that in these modern days we sometimes take for granted.  The key is "we search the prophets." and through their studies they "obtain a hope", a hope in Christ and their "faith becameth unshaken".  So I exhort you all at home to search the words of our living prophets.  Everyone try and read at least one talk from a recent conference and next week I would love to receive emails of what you learned and also how it has strengthened your faith.  I love you all!!  I testify of the reality of the restoration.  Joseph Smith was a prophet of the living God and President Monson is truly the prophet for the whole world today.  I testify of the reality of that calling. 

Have an amazing week!!!! 

Love,

Elder Jarrett Anderson

¡El reino de dios o nada! 

I Love it When it's Hard!

We studied service this morning and are setting goals to do more community service and service in the ward. Super cool!! Well, we have a ton of references to start calling this week because this is supposedly when they all start getting back.b  So we shall see!!  Vacations are hopefully coming to an end!  Well, we were going to go to the temple this Wednesday (we go once a transfer if you're in Madrid) but they cancelled it and we won't be going this transfer. (dang it)  Although I shouldn't complain, my comp hasn't been in a year.  So I have no room to complain.  haha!  Next transfer though!  We have Zone Conference on Thursday!  I am extremely excited for that and it will be amazing, as always.  Send all handwritten letters (for now, until I say otherwise) to the mission office.  Our address doesn't work, but the office is in our district so I will get it at District Meeting. 

This week was an interesting one and I don't have a lot to say honestly.  We met with Carmela a couple times.  She completely stopped progressing.  We have been working on her and her daughter and her daughter doesn't want to listen anymore and Carmela refuses to accept that Christ established one church, and that there is one true church on earth.  She thinks they are all true and she doesn't want to choose because she doesn't want to "love us more than the others" because that's "not what Jesus taught".  We tried explaining everything to her simply and show her through the Bible and have been working so hard on explaining the Moroni 10 promise but she just won't get it.  She says she loves having us over but she told us she only wants us over once a week from now on so she's kindof done progressing for now.  We´ll keep going and trying to help her understand and gain a testimony but we will see. 

Ramon - we have had a couple short lessons with him in his little beat up house. We sit in his tiny room and he's told us about some of his problems in life.  For example, the night after our first lesson with him there was a huge fight at his house and the police were there and he said something about how he was gone for the next few days.  I'm not sure if he was in jail but I think he may have been.  It's been extremely humbling teaching him.  He just wants to be happy and we have been trying to help him find hope through this message. 

Humberto, has decided his best source of information to find out if the church is true or not is the Internet. He has looked up some anti stuff and just so much information on the Internet and we have had two very frustrating lessons with him.  He was just going off about how because of this and this and this the church could never be true.  Joseph Smith died in prison, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, all sorts of things he's brought up and the Spirit was gone as he just went off and as, at least, Dad knows I had a period of my life where I looked up a ton of anti-Mormon stuff and had read so much about the gospel.  As he was going off about a ton of things I said "Humberto, listen to me.  First off, we're going to go out into the street and ask 50 people if God exists and whatever they say that's going to be what we believe.  It's the same with the Internet.  We can go there and base our beliefs off of what we read.  It would be pointless to go out into the street and ask them because we know God exists.  How?  We've felt it.  We've felt it and we know He's there and that's all we have asked you to do.  Go directly to the source.  Ask God if it's true.  Now do it.  Humberto, I've been where you've been.  I've looked up so many things about the church, bad, good, and everything in between.  I know what's out there, and it never edified me or led me to a conclusion.  But Humberto, in the name of Jesus Christ, I testify to you that this book is true.  Joseph Smith was a just man, a man of God.  He was a prophet of God and I testify to you with all of my heart that Jesus Christ lives and this is His church.  I know it with my whole heart and soul.  I know it without a single doubt, not because of what I've read on the Internet, which i have and not because of what any man has told me but because of the answer I received from God and I cannot deny that.  I asked Him and I felt something I can never deny.  Ever.  Humberto, it's true. Now ask Him."  It was so powerful.  He finally just sat and listened as I, through my tears, testified to him of what I knew to be true. I had been praying the night before for the Lord to help strengthen my testimony, and that was it.  I will defend the truth at all costs.  I will testify till the day I die that these things are true.  My comp afterwards said, "Thanks Elder for finally shutting him up with powerful testimony."  It was an incredible experience and Humberto said he'll try because my testimony touched him.  It was an incredible experience.

Miguel, the husband of Silvia.  We started teaching him this week. he is the husband of a member and they have had a lot of marriage issues.  He is starting to listen because he wants to try and save the marriage but hey, you've got to start somewhere no?  So he's doing well so far.  We´ll see as time goes on what his true desires are.

We had a lot of time passing by references.  We had a really good problem this week.  We contacted so much the first couple weeks we had too many references and had to stop finding people and had to contact the ones we already had but nothing has come from it yet. but we´re still working on that project.  A lot of passbys and trying to contact people but not much came of it but that's okay!!  It kinda starts to get tough at that point mentally but we're saying as a companionship "We like it when its hard".  We like the rainy days when no one will listen to you all day, when we get yelled at all day, and then at 9:50 right before going in you get the number of someone you know you´ll never see again.  Those are the kind of the days we love.  I have loved the work, and things are incredible.

Spiritual thought:

i just want to focus on one thing from Preach My Gospel I read this morning.  It's a simple statement and it is in regards to our ability to let the Lord work miracles in our lives. 

He works according to the faith of His children. Doubt and fear are opposed to faith.

The Lord works according to our faith and our trust in him.  Although we may not understand the "why" behind everything.  We can understand that He knows and we can trust that He knows.  So trust him, and I testify that the Lord will work miracles in our daily lives.  Two scriptures to go with this,  Moroni 7:35-37.  I know this is true.  The "miracles of the Bible" have not ceased.  According to our faith the Lord will work miracles in our lives. So take heed to the counsel in Doctrine and Covenants 6:36 "look unto him in every thought, doubt not, fear not."

I challenge each of you to seek miracles.  Not only seek them, but expect them according to your faith. 

Love you all!!!

Elder Anderson

¡El reino de dios o nada!