Week 101 - October 26, 2015

I don't really have any time at all but we are continuing to work hard
and try and find people. Still waiting on the fruits. We tore through
the area book and we are now passing by all the members to try and
develop a relationship because for some reason it's hard to on
Sundays. We have a new ward mission leader and he is great. He will
do great things for this ward. But in the meantime we are still
scouring and bearing testimony. I know it will pay off someday. Thanks
for your words mom. They're what I needed. I know I'm doing what the
Lord needs me to do. And I need to do it until the end because I am
doing some good.

I know God is at the helm. And it's taking a lot of faith to open this
area but I know he is guiding us. It's been a week of progress and
things are picking up.

We went to El Teide today (measured from the bottom of the ocean,
which is its bottom, it is the third tallest mountain in the world or
something like that) So we went there with President Pack today and wow it
was beautiful!!!  I will send some pictures.

Have an amazing week!! I will send a good final email next week. And I
will also be sending a letter that I want you to read on the way
to the airport. So if it says "aeropuerto" on it. Don't open it yet!
Until you're coming to pick me up.

Love you all. Have an amazing week!!!

Week 100 - October 19, 2015

Dear mom,

Thanks so much for the email mom. It helped me so much. It's a very
emotional time in my mission and it's so comforting to hear that from
you. I try so hard to be a true disciple and I know I'm not perfect
but it's what I'm striving for. So thank you mom!!

To answer your food question I have just been eating healthy foods
lately in the piso. And with members well we haven't eaten much. But
when we did we ate Cuban food haha. Haven't had much seafood at all.
Oh and the Germans make good food! They made bratwursts and sour kraut
so I assumed that was really German. Haha

This week was a good week. We did A LOT of work in the area book. My
companion has been making a ton of calls to practice talking to people
in Spanish so that's helped him! We have been setting things up with
people we meet in the street and from the area book but not much has
come through yet. A lot of stuff has fallen through, but we will keep
trying!! That's what the mission is all about.

We were making some plans on Thursday to meet with the Bishop and we
were praying for the opportunity to meet with him and we were planning
on setting something up with him when we saw him on Sunday. Then
Thursday night he called the other elders and said "elders I want to
meet tomorrow. Let's meet at 11" so that was the absolute biggest
miracle. We were able to finally talk with him and start to work with
him.

While making calls in the area book we called a lady named Elia. She
seemed kind of skeptical about meeting but she agreed to meet. She had
been meeting with sisters about a year ago. We arrived at the
designated spot and she came around the corner with her son. She was a
little worried because we were strangers calling her and she didn't
know who we were but in the end we taught them about the restoration
and we were starting to develop a good relation with her and her son
José. We will be meeting again with them tonight. We are really
excited!!

I have had a lot of fun training!! It's great to have a companion who
wants to be obedient and work hard. He's progressing and his Spanish
is coming along well. I speak to him (or try to at least) in Spanish
all day. It's super fun. What's funny is I'm super excited for the
time he will have in the mission and he's super excited for me to get
home haha.  He says it's going to be a whole different world. He's 
hilarious and I'm bummed I've only got 3 more weeks with him. 
The 12 week training program is amazing!!! I love it and I'm learning a ton.

I love you all. It doesn't seem real that I will only be emailing 2
more times after this. I feel like I will be out here for forever.
Have an amazing week and never forget who we all represent as his
disciples.

Spiritual thought for the week is the following invitation, which I
will proceed with a couple things from this week. The ward put on a
theatrical presentation about the people waiting in the spirit world
for us to find them. (A great man in the ward name Emilio wrote the
whole thing and put it on) and it got me super excited to do family
history work. On Sunday during 12 weeks we discussed how we could use
family history in the work. And I can feel "el espíritu de Elías" as
we say in Spanish. The spirit of Elijah. Lately when we have been in
the chapel waiting for things I have been trying to do family history
on my iPad and now I am even more excited thanks to this week. My
invitation to all of you is to set some goals and go research a little
about our ancestors. And try and find some names we can take to the
temple. I found Alfonso V and Alfonso VI (kings of Castile y Léon, a
part of my mission) in one of our lines. There are amazing stories and
people waiting for us to find. So go find them! I promise that as you
do so you will be filled with the spirit of the lord and as the
apostles have promised you will have a greater protection from the
temptations of this world, you will be protected from the fiery darts
of the adversary. I promise you'll be filled with "el espíritu de
Elías" because that is what has happened to me.

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

A lot down, 3 to go.

Love,
Elder Anderson
¡El reino de dios o nada!
¡Hurah por Israel!

Week 99 - October 12, 2015

Dear family,

What a week it has been. Another one has flown by and I've been very grateful lately for the every moment I have to be a part of this great work. In the service of our King. 

First off I wanted to let you know, there will be a zone training the last week of the transfer , so if you want to write me one last time you can send letters to me through the mission office and I will get them, my last Thursday. 

Well, I don't really even know where to start. I'm learning that things don't always come quite as fast as you want them (a lesson I feel like I've learned over and over again in the mission but it's been a good reminder).  We are working extremely hard and I feel like we are laying the foundation and I'll be leaving before its dry but that hasn't stopped the desires to work hard.  We are searching for people to find like crazy.  We have been doing a lot of work in the area book and talking to a lot of people in the street.  It's a hard process but we are slowly but surely finding the people that are ready. The miracle of this process has been that as they've basically thrown us out here and said, "Alright!  Go find!"  We have found. The Lord is truly preparing the hearts of the people and I am constantly reminded of the words in Alma 13:24  "For behold, angels are declaring it unto many at this time in our land; and this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory."  The lord is preparing His people.  He's trying to touch all of his children's hearts, and the elect are listening and being gathered.  We have found two men and a woman who I am extremely excited for.  Pepe, a nice Christian man who is from Tenerife.  who at first said "I don't really share your beliefs" and then at the end accepted a Book of Mormon.  We will meet with him on Wednesday.  We found another man named Miguel, also a Canario, who was very nice and we will be meeting with him tonight.  We also found Blanca last night.  A lady from Quito, Ecuador and she accepted a Book of Mormon and is excited to meet.

We have also been teaching a man named Miguel (from here, from Tenerife) he said to us during our first lesson while we were reading about Christ's gospel in 3 Nephi 27:13-20 "you know I feel like I haven't been able to truly live the gospel with past missionaries, but this time will be different.  I want to live this gospel".  So we are going to help him make the changes he wants to make.  Super humble man.

My companion is awesome!!!  I love him so much.  He's a great missionary.  His Spanish is improving every day and he is working hard.  He's got a great understanding of the gospel and is well prepared.  The training program 12 weeks is really fun and it's been great for both of us to review the basics of the work.  We are doing the Lord's work, in the Lord's way and he's doing awesome!

We were finally able to start meeting members this week.  I don't know if I've ever mentioned it but I have been so impressed with the faith of the members here.  They are an amazing example of faith, sacrifice, and love for the Lord.  They endure so much social pressure from family and friends just so they can live the gospel.  It's amazing.  I love the saints here in Spain, the Canaries, and Europe in general.  They are an amazing example to all.

An amazing example of this faithfulness to the Lord is the example of the Hein family.  From Germany.  They are a retired couple living here.  He speaks a little English and are in the very beginning of the process of learning Spanish yet they come every single week to church, despite not understanding anything, to partake of the sacrament and share their wonderful smiles.  They are members of the ward family despite their inability to fully communicate.  He can say a few things in Spanish but she doesn't speak Spanish nor English yet they go to every activity and social because they love the Lord and His church.  Every Friday we go and eat with them and this Friday we were going to a lesson in their town and we needed a man to get in to a lesson and we called him and next thing we know this 70 or so year old man comes sprinting around the corner with a huge smile on his face.  They're such a faithful couple.

We also met with Fiona, a 27 year old less-active member originally from Scotland.  She has been inactive for a few years and has gone away for work reasons and a couple little doubts.  She expressed her testimony and love for the gospel during our visit and we testified of God's love and how he simply wants us to come unto Him.  We invited her to church. Called to remind her to come on Saturday night and she came!!  She showed up and loved it.  It was awesome to see her partake of the sacrament again after so long without it.  So that was another miracle for the week.

I cannot express with words how beautiful this Island is.  From the east side of our island you can see Gran Canaria (another island) and when we are on the west side we can see Teide (a giant volcano) and La Gomera (Another island). The houses on the cliffs next to the ocean make me feel like I'm in Greece at times and the beautiful black sand beaches are amazing.  The ocean is gorgeous and it's somewhat of a desert.  Just my beautiful home off the coast of Africa.  I love it here.  It's unreal.

Spiritual thought for the week is found in 2 Nephi 9:13-14 it says the following:

"13 O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect.

14 Wherefore, we shall have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanness, and our nakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness, being clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of righteousness."

Through the power of the resurrection we will also live again. And we will be restored to a " perfect knowledge". I found in verse 14 a blessing I yearn for. It's the part I put in italics, "and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness" At times we have a hard time seeing the good we do. Seeing how our efforts to be righteous are worth it. It's hard to see the good in us. But as we keep trying, keep moving forward, living the gospel of Christ, the day will come when we will be able to recognize the good we did and realize we did a lot better than we thought we did. Don't get discouraged if you think you're not doing very well at being a disciple. Our father loves us and the day will come when we see what we did through different eyes. Just one more blessing through the atonement and resurrection of our savior.

 Also I'm so glad that my service has blessed you. Means my prayers have been blessed.

I love my Savior and I love His work. 

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

Love,

Elder Anderson

Week 98 - October 5, 2015

Family,

Well it was a crazy week. Got my new comp Elder Romney on Tuesday and
flew out on Wednesday.  We arrived on the island and a couple hours
later I led district meeting.  Then we went back and the next couple
days were spent getting settled in.  Taking the old area book (that was
literally a binder with some papers just shoved in it) and organizing
it and trying to find our way around town and finding people.  It's
been a slow week when it comes to the progress of the area but it's
been fast other than that.  Now to answer a few questions. I actually am
serving in a ward that has 4 elders and they were actually here before
(well one of them) and its Elder Gorge!  My old companion! So it's a
little bit easier because we are opening up a companionship in the
ward but the thing is there is nothing.  We walked into the piso and
there was one usable Book of Mormon and a couple of pamphlets.  Thank
heavens Elder Gorge is here because he's been able to help us find
things.  We went out to a pueblo called Puerto de la Cruz and met a
couple members and a less active lady named Carmen.  So we are going to
start working with them.  Puerto de la Cruz is beautiful!!  But a very
touristy place.

Elder Anderson & Elder Romney

My companion is doing good!  He is learning Spanish and has amazing
desires to learn it and do the work.  It's great to be with someone who
has desires to work hard and be obedient.  He's a great missionary and
will do amazing things here.  We are both learning how to do things
here in the islands cause wow, it's a lot different than Madrid.  We
can't drink the water here so we have to buy it at the store for the
week.  We don't live right on the coast (about 25 minutes in the above
ground metro) but we see the ocean basically every day.

The work is coming.  We're just finding right now and so we will just
continue to lay the foundation for future missionaries.  It's gonna be
5 more weeks of hard work and I'm trying my absolute hardest to give
it my all.  It was a couple interesting transfers in B5 after Elder
Cahoon left but it shaped me and helped me grow.  Now he's giving me
one last mountain to climb before I come home and I'm gonna summit it.

Conference was amazing as always.  I have come to appreciate it more
and more.  As dad described it it's like finding an oasis in the desert
(or something along those lines) it was well needed and a good
spiritual recharge to help me keep going strong.

I don't even know where to begin with what I learned.  I learned so
much!  But I loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk.  What he said really comforted
me.  I think I've tried for too long to complicate my discipleship.  I'm
going to simplify things and not beat myself up so much.  Sometimes I
feel like I don't do good enough but then I realize, I'm trying to be
perfect right now rather than improve and strive for perfection.  I've
seen perfection as a destination and not as the journey it is.  So I'm
going to simplify things and enjoy the journey.  What you said mom at
the end of the email really spoke to me, it's what the spirit has been
telling me all weekend.  My goal for the next 5 weeks is to find joy in
the journey.  And what better place to do it than paradise?

This island is amazing!! I know the church is true! There are prophets
in Israel and we just spent a weekend at their feet. I love you all!!!

Love,

Elder Anderson
¡Hurah por Israel!
¡El Reino de Dios o nada!


My comp is a great missionary. He's going to do wonderful things in this mission. So cool they emailed you. I'm so grateful for their prayers and thanks for your prayers mom. 

To answer your questions!

1) There are 12 missionaries on the island. There are four of us in
our ward. We are opening up a companionship in the ward (which is a
little bit easier, and it's a blessing. Opening up the area completely
would have been a very difficult task
so it's been a blessing to have another companionship here to
help us out)
2) The church is outside of the town about a 20-30 minute walk.
3) We are not sure how many active members there are, but it seems
like there are quite a few! I will let you know next week once we've
been to a sacrament meeting.
4) It is a ward.
5) The Canary Islands was made into a stake in 2013 a couple months
before I got to Spain. It is called the Las Palmas Stake.
6) Tourism is huge. There are also a lot of retired and rich Germans
who come to live here. They are also a huge producer of bananas here.

Training is fun so far!  He's got a lot of fire and it's awesome.

Have an amazing week dad.
I love you!!

 P-Day in the Canary Islands

 Tenerife, Canary Islands

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