Week 56 - December 15, 2014

Thats super exciting!!!!  The snow sounds awesome.  No matter how little!!!  We don't have any snow here.  It's rained a few times but for the most part it's just a dry cold.  But that's good.  Being wet and working is not fun at all!!!  haha  The last winter in Galicia was a wild one.

Sounds like all is going well.  That interfaith Christmas devotional sounds awesome! Hope all continues to go well at home!!! 

Yes!  Things are going extremely well with the new comp.  He is a stud!!!  He is working on his Spanish, but just in the week we've been together he is picking up on it and doing extremely well!!!  It's been super fun working with him.  Like I said before, I think he is a convert of 2 years and has a powerful conversion story!!  This transfer we will not be going to the temple.  I'm pretty bummed, but we go next transfer.  Well, hopefully!  Our district meetings are on Wednesday mornings. We have a zone meeting - 1 every transfer on a Thursday, and zone conferences every 3 months or so. Funny, you ask if I ever see president!  I had an interview with him this last week!  He came down and interviewed our zone.

Well, this week was an amazing one!  We didn't teach many lessons but it was awesome still!!!  We continue to meet with Joaquin and his family every Wednesday!!!  They are doing great and are loving the visits.  Keep praying for them!!! 

Luis and Ines are doing great!!!  We had a great lesson with them about the sabbath day and they commited to coming to all the hours from now on.  It was a struggle beforehand but now they are coming!!!  They are on date and pretty much good to go for the 10th of January.  Keep all these people in your prayers.  It's the most I can ask of all of you back home but prayer is something that works and I testify of that!!  So pray pray pray!!!! 

The biggest other news this week is that Daniel and Melbi are doing so well!!!  We met with them on Saturday and Sunday and taught her lesson 2, the Word of wisdom and the sabbath day.  She is committed to living them all and has told us her goal is baptism.  This weekend we are going to be having a lesson on the Law of Chastity and temple marriage.  It's the big one because they live together and are not married.  I have had a good feeling about them so I am hoping that they can figure out a way to live it.  I have the faith they can, we all need to pray for a way for the Lord to provide the way for them to obey it!!! 

Those were the biggest progressions this week.  I am beyond excited to talk to guys on Christmas Day!!!!  It will be the greatest Christmas ever!!!!!  I miss you guys and it's gonna be awesome to see you!!!:)  It's going to be crazy to see how big you guys have gotten. 

For the spiritual thought this week I wanted to say something that has been on my mind.  I found a song from another missionary the one about "go bring them in from the plains, go bring them in from the cold" and it has stuck with me all week.  I am here to "bring my siblings in from the plains".  I am a part of the modern day rescue team!  Just as my ancestors before me,  I am here to bring those who are suffering out in this world to the valley of Zion and as members of the church that is our job.  They always talk about every member a missionary but is it something we live?  Before the mission I know I didn't.  This week I want to invite you as Brigham Young did to the saints, to go rescue our siblings.  Go bring them in from the plains!  They are hurting, and starving spiritually and need our help.  Let us be that help.  Think about what you can do!!!  I love you guys!!!!  This church is true!!!!  Never forget it!!!!

Love,

Elder Anderson

¡el reino de dios o nada!

Happy Immaculate Conception Day!!!!

Happy Immaculate Conception Day everybody!!!!  It's a holiday here in Spain and so that just means everything is closed and nobody is in the street.  The Young Single Adults have school off and stuff so my new comp and I will be teaching the family home evening lesson.  Yep, today is also transfers and Elder Overson got transferred.  He went to Alcorcón and I am now with Elder Carrejo.  He is from New Mexico.  He is awesome!!!  I am so excited to serve with him.  This is his fourth transfer in the field, so started the mission in May.  He is a convert, and was baptized very recently and he promised to tell me his conversion story tonight so I am extremely excited to hear it.  He's 24 and I am super pumped for this transfer!!!! 

So great to hear all is well at home.  My prayers are answered every week as I get on and see all is well.  The Lord has his hand in all of our lives and I'm so grateful he just continues to bless you all back home. 

Well it was a good week.  On Monday we had a cool experience.  We were contacting and were talking to this Spaniard who wasn't really interested but in the middle of the contact this lady walks up and says I'm so glad I found you!!!  She was investigating the church over a year ago and since then had lost contact with the missionaries, they had also been kicked out of their house and were living in the street, and in the process of getting kicked out of her house had lost her Book of Mormon.  As we gave one to her the smile on her face was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen.  I think she was about to cry.  We didn't have any way to contact her and we set up a lesson for Thursday.  She didn't show up but at least she received a Book of Mormon. It was another tender mercy from the Lord, and honestly, a miracle.  She was so happy to receive it and it made me feel so good to be able to provide it for her.  Sometimes we want grand results and grand miracles, yet it's the small miracles that we sometimes miss that truly mean the most. 

We met with Ismael on Tuesday.  We started talking about the priesthood but the lesson topic quickly changed to desires and then from desires to gifts and talents because he didn't really know what he wants.  As we discussed what his likes and hobbies are we started to discuss the importance of goal setting and we decided to have some fun with him and teach him the principle of goal setting in a way that isn't too tough for a teenager. He is 18.  After making a list of his talents, likes and interests we set the goal with him to post one foto a day on to instagram for one year. Now it sounds silly but it worked wonders.  He completed it for this week and has put up a foto a day, and on Saturday after his sister's baptism we met with him and talked to him about spiritual goals.  He was really happy he was fulfilling his goal.  We had a member there and after talking about his goal and how he felt we switched gears to how he felt at his sister's baptism, and what he desires when it comes to his spiritual life.  After a lot of discussion and testimonies he has now set the goal to read and pray every day.  Something he wasn't really doing before and is really starting to think about how he really does want this.  In the end using some little app to teach him that principle he now understands and is setting goals in his spiritual life.  I am so excited for him.  He is going step by step but he's coming along. 

We still continue to meet with Joaquin.  We watched the restoration at his house last week and he was so excited.  He is getting so much happier and I love that family.

We met with Luis and Ines and taught them the law of chastity and the ten commandments.  We had given them the law of chastity pamphlet to review during the last lesson and they said, "Well this will be an easy one.  Our 40th anniversary is tomorrow and we have stuck together through it all, all the good times, all the hard times, and tomorrow it will have been 40 years. We have been faithful to each other and this law makes sense because it's a commandment that is about truly loving each other and staying with each other through it all.  And that's what we've done and will continue to do."  It was super cool.  They are amazing and are progressing so well!  We moved their date back to the 10th of January.  They are doing great!! 

Daniel and Melbi were not able to meet this week because they were out of town.  But they are doing great.  They are both reading and praying together and alone daily.  We are going to meet again with them this week and I am super excited!!! 

I went through 5 umbrellas more or less up in Galicia, and two here in Madrid.  haha.  The weather here in Madrid is just a dry cold.  It gets pretty cold but it never snows.  Just rains occasionally.  It does snow in other parts of Spain though up in the mountains. 

Thank you for the letters they continue to help and encourage me and I have come to understand what true success is. I know you will be proud of me because I'm giving everything i have to this work. 

I love you all!  Have an amazing week!!!! 

Love,

Elder Jarrett Anderson

¡El reino de Dios o nada!

December 1, 2014

I am so excited for Grandma and Grandpa.  That will be an incredible experience to serve there in the temple.  Wow!!!  So cool!!  Sounds like it was a good Thanksgiving as well at the Deans!  Tell everyone I say hello and that they're the best!! 

It is interesting we call this a sacrifice.  The more I reflect on what I am doing, and realize what missionary work truly is, it isn't much of a sacrifice.  It's just a small thing, what I can give, for all He has given to me.  It is a sacrifice, yet it's the small part I can give.  I'm so grateful for it though!  This mission is incredible!!!  And I am glad they have desires to serve missions.  Now i just want to invite them to prepare.  Do your part now and be ready to go.  Read your scriptures daily.  Say your prayers daily.  Go to church without complaining.  Fulfill your callings and priesthood duties and take Seminary and all your classes seriously.  Just do the simple things and you will be prepared. 

This week was a really good one.  Just a few things that happened...  On Tuesday we met with Ester, the lady from Peru who can't get baptized because she's waiting on divorce papers and living with a man, but she is doing her part to do what she can right now.  She came to church last Sunday and was praying and said, "Father, just help us. My boyfriend needs a job. I am trying my best to live your commandments and I am here in your church. Please help us."  She said the next morning her boyfriend woke up and started applying for jobs online.  Now just so you know back home, Spain has been going through for a few years an extreme financial crisis. and finding a job is extremely hard here.  And even harder if you are a foreigner but within minutes of applying he received a phone call and had an interview that afternoon and he got the job at 3 o'clock that afternoon.  She told us this Tuesday through tears and told us how it was a miracle and it was thanks to her obedience.  It was amazing to see how much God loves us and what great blessings we will receive if we are simply obedient to his commandments.  Definitely the miracle of the week. 

We have also been teaching a lady named Melbi.  She is the girlfriend of a member named Daniel. He found us on the street and told us he had just moved here from Mostoles.  He had been less active for years and he asked us for the address to our chapple in our area.  He came to church the next week and brought his girlfriend and then invited us to come over that week.  We have taught her lesson one and three and she is loving it.  She is so excited to listen and is reading and loves the Book of Mormon.  They live together but I have a good feeling about them.  They both have jobs so I have a good feeling things can work out with this one.  We are extrremely excited for them!!

One of the days this week I had a feeling to go through and call all of the numbers I had in my planner.  I called a guy I had called a bunch of times and he answered and we set up a lesson for the next day.  We met with them and taught them lesson one and they really enjoyed it and were asking us some good questions.  It was a solid lesson.  Their names are Alberto and Rosi and are from Guayacil, Ecuador.

Ismael is still going. He is kind of reading but doesn't really want to get baptized yet. He's a great kid but this week we may start to see some changes.  Please pray for him!

We had a terrible day on Friday. We spent the entire day in the street contacting and nobody would talk with us but diligence is key and we were perseverant!  About 15 minutes before we had to be in the piso we found a man from Puerto Rico who said we were the third set of missionaries to find him and he took it as a sign he needed to listen.  He was going to come to church but wasn't able to.  But he is excited to meet with us!  I'm so glad we just kept pushing all day long.  It always pays off. 

Well I said a few months ago my goal was to finish the New Testament before my year mark.  I finished Monday!!!  It was an amazing experience.  I'd never read it cover to cover before and it was amazing.  WIth the  knowledge I have gained out here it now makes more sense to me and I understand the New Testament a whole lot better now.  Super cool to fulfill that goal!!!:)

For the spiritual thought I wanted to share with you all the importance of what I said earlier, how preparing for the mission is to do the simple things.  I know that is true.  It is interesting that one of the commandments we teach as missionaries is to read the scriptures and pray regularly.  It is not only a recommendation, yet a commandment.  Let us all ask ourselves, Am I doing my daily personal worship?  And am I keeping those two simple commandments?  If not, we need to repent and start.  I promise the Lord will bless us as we take time for our daily personal worship every single day. 

Have an amazing week this next week!!! Love you all!!!!

I love you mom.

Love,

Elder Anderson

¡El reino de Dios o nada!

p.s. yes transfers are this saturday!! crazy!!!!

             The worst day of the week when it was raining and my umbrella broke. Hahaha, oh well, we made it through!!!:

A Few Pictures from B4