April 21, 2014

Easter was really interesting.  They don't celebrate it here like [in the states] and it wasn't a huge deal for people.  They partied all week (which meant no people in the streets, and those that were didn't want to even look at us) but Sunday was just a normal day.  They didn't really even have much in sacrament about it and not much was said about the resurrection, but I celebrated it by reading the story of His resurrection and 3 Nephi 11 for personal study!  Solid study session.  Other than that it was a pretty normal, average day. 

I can't believe Hunter is a teacher already!!!  That's insane, and that always was a sacred experience to watch Hunter help Kyson.  Hunter was an amazing Deacons Quorum President.  He truly understood how to use his priesthood and I know he is a "hero" to Kyson, a priesthood hero like Elder Eyring talked about in the priesthood session.  McKay, how was the mo-tab concert?  That's so cool you got to go! (good for you for taking advantage of Saturday and making Sunday all about the Savior, that's why my family is the best).  I missed doing the egg hunt this year with you guys, it was weird thinking its Easter back home, but while you were hunting for eggs, I was hunting for people so we were on a "hunt" at the same time:)  I'm excited to hear how Hannah does with softball!! tell her to keep it up!!:)  Holy cow, elections already?  Yeah, it did seem like just yesterday we were helping him set up last year, and now He and I are like 5-7 months into our missions.

 Braedons doing well!!  We always email each other in Spanish's so that's cool!!  and Jake finally emailed us after months and months and months, haha but he's doing really good!  Colton has emailed me... he's doing really well.  Sis. Montgomery is in the field in Scotland and Veronica emailed me and she is engaged and gets married in August.  Crazy stuff.  Thanks for your testimony mom. I love you so much!!  I also know he lives.

 No matter what anyone says I will never deny the fact I know that he lives and loves us. I cannot comprehend his atoning sacrifice for us either but as I continue to learn about it my gratitude, and love for him grows.  I know he suffered, died, and rose again the third day and that brings hope.  That's what this Easter season is about.  Hope through our older brother, and Savior. 

Yo sé con todo mi corazón que él vive. él es nuestro salvador y por medio de él, tendremos la oportunidad para vivir otra vez. Este obra de que estoy trabajando es su obra. y sé también que nos ama y todas las personas aquí en A Coruña, les ama. y él quiere que regresen a su padre y por medio de él este es posible. 

As for my week it was a long one. but a great one!  We started off with having a lesson Monday night with Andres, we let him go for a while but he came to an activity friday so we set something up with him but he doesn't want to pray, he has so many questions and theories about the creation and he doesn't believe God (if he even exists, Andres still won't pray to find out) could be our father (according to Andres).  So we told him to pray and simply ask if he is there, but he refuses to make it simple.  It's sad to see someone I've spent so long working with and trying to help, turn away from the message, but one day he will know, I just hope to meet him on the other side and help him realize the truth there.  It's weird to think about but I have desires to be a part of his conversion in the spirit world.  He has a special place in my heart and it's hard to see him reject the gospel, because I've grown to love him like with just an ounce of the love Father in Heaven has for him and I have grown to learn that, learn just a little of what the father feels for his children.  Tuesday, we had a couple lessons one with Josefa and Cindy!  We taught them the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity.  It went really well and she's giving up coffee!!!  We also taught them Wednesday about diezmo!! (tithing) and they accepted it, but she has some doubts and is a little scared to pay and is a little bit hesitant on her baptismal fecha and we still have to receive written consent from her husband for her and for Cindy.  So this week please please please keep them in your prayers, they are progressing so well but there are so many things that could go wrong, but I know that if we plea heavenward the Lord will take care of everything.  He will answer the prayers.  We got fed twice this week by members (which never happens, the members never feed us haha) but its because all the super solid families that love to have us over live out in surrounding pueblos (which by the way you can look up our ward boundaries to see how large our rama is, its like 2 hours to go from where we live to the farthest corner from us its massive) but we got to go out and eat this week!!  Then Wednesday to Friday we had 16 consecutive lessons fire us.  Holy contacting.  Rough days but we found a few people and I've gotten so much better at contacting and I feel so much more confident.  It's been a super good experience and that was basically the rest of my week.  For p-day we're in Santiago!!!  for the cathedral and everything.  It's gonna be super fun! and then for the package!! deodorant, sd card, and could you send like a pin drive type thing?  That would be awesome. Love you all!!!!  Thanks for everything:)

Elder Anderson

Happy Easter

Easter here is the semana santa and they have like a different procession every day.  They celebrate it a lot different then we do and I'm actually not really sure how they do it.  They have different parades basically for the different days of the week in honor of the last week of the Savior's life.  Super interesting. 

It's been the most amazing 4 months, but a very discouraging 4 months.  I know that your prayers sustain me.  Your prayers are what help me through.  This week we did A LOT of street contacting.  We tried to emphasize the Book of Mormon in our street contacts as we were asked to do in district meeting and honestly there were just a lot of people who wanted to argue with us.  We had some very good lessons and a couple of investigators though that helped us to continue to move forward and keep a good attitude!  We have Josefa and Cindy, the friends of the Relief Society President.  We have been teaching them and they have come to conference, a baptism, activities and church and are progressing extremely well!!  We set a baptism date for May 3rd!!  Although, she says she hasn't received a full on answer yet she's getting there and so is her daughter.  Keep them in your prayers most of all. They just need a little push and a little answer and they will be golden!!!  So hopefully in a weeks time we can say that that baptism is a for sure thing!:) 

Monday was all contacting, Tuesday we contacted all day because our 3 lessons fired us, and then we met with the Young Men's President.  Wednesday we had Miguel a recent convert, Josefa and Cindy and then more contacting.  We had one street lesson that night that went really well but she's gone this week so we will be following up in a week.  Thursday we met with Raquel, and it was amazing to go and bring the spirit into her home. She said we always come at the right time.  Her mom's health is really struggling and when we went she said we were exactly what she needed:) I learned it's all about people.  If we can just make one person smile and have a good day that's what matters.  We contacted the remainder of the day because our other lessons and back up plans failed, and found no one. Friday we had Nadya!!  Which was good as usual!  She's doing great and is progressing really well in the gospel!  I just can't wait until she has more time open to start coming to more church functions.  We had a lesson later with a guy we found him in the area book and he says he knows this church is true and loves the Book of Mormon so we set a baptismal date for the 31 of May to give him time to see if he's committed and he didn't show up to church and now he won't answer his phone.  We've got time on that one.  We´ll be good!  I hope we can just get him to church cause he would be golden!  

Saturday, was a LONG day of contacting, we got a few references but most of them were fake numbers and then people who said they weren't really interested when we called them. We had no lessons all day and it was a long day but!, we kept a good attitude all day and worked all the way up until the end.  It was good to truly put to practice "endure to the end" Sunday was good!  We had church, Josefa and Cindy were there and they loved it!  We met with a menos activo (less active) after and we are working on getting him back to church!! nd I'm excited for him.  We met with Josefa and Cindy and taught the Plan of Salvation and they loved it.  They said it makes perfect sense and they know this is true, they just need to recognize their answers.  We had a lesson with a man named Omar who told us the Pope runs all the churches, and we came to an "evil city" to teach the word of god, but we talked to him about how God loves all his children and the people here are his children and he loves them.  Then he said he wants to know more about our message, and that he´ll read the whole Book of Mormon by Thursday.  So there might be potential.  We shall see.   We thhen were contacting the rest of the night and finally found a kid named Wilson at 9:50 right before we went home who we taught lesson 1 with.  So truly persevering until the end paid off!!! Yesterday a lot of people just tried to argue with us but we stuck to our message, "You can know for yourself if you read the Book of Mormon and pray about it".  Even though it was super hard not to get frustrated it was a good testimony building week for me that as people attack my testimony of this book, my testimony cannot be shaken.  Ever.  I can't thank you enough for the prayers.  The Lord truly is answering them.  I love you all!!!!  So much!!  Happy Semana Santa!!  and Happy Birthday Hunter!!!!!:)  You're getting so big man!!  Love you!!

Elder Anderson,

¡El reino de dios o nada!

Conference was incredible!!!  We only got to watch 3 sessions, Saturday morning, Priesthood and Sunday morning.  The connection was terrible for the Saturday monring session and we missed half of it so I cannot wait to be able to get the Liahona and review it!! It was all in Spanish but I'm glad I've been out long enough that I could understand everything.  It was an incredible conference!!!  They are truly starting to raise the voice of warning as it says in D&C 1 and as this generation as they repeated over and over is the chosen generation and there is a HUGE work to do, I know the youth will step up and do it. It's been crazy to see how bad the opposition is while living here, seeing the world and Satan's influence all around us constantly it was a huge testimony builder to me to see these prophets know exactly what they're talking about. They truly do speak for the Lord. 

We lost all our investigators these past two weeks and we are completely working from scratch.  The finding has been hard and not many people want to listen to us, but I've been studying alot in the Book of Mormon about Alma and the kind of missionary he was. I loved after he was preaching to the people in Ammonihah and they reviled him, spit on him, rejected him, and cast him out and he was "weighed down with much sorrow" an angel appeared to him and said "Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God.

I had quite the spiritual experience.  I didn't see an angel or hear a voice but I thought to myself,blessed art thou Elder Anderson, lift up thy head and rejoice, I've got great reason to rejoice because of my diligence in doing what I have been asked.  I keep the rules with exactness, I keep the commandments and I do everything my leaders tell me to do.  Rejoice. I had a great feeling of peace that no matter what happens, the Lord is by my side.  He's there for me and while I'm in his service it doesn't matter what numbers I get or if I "appear" successful, what matters is that I work my hardest and the Lord will bless me.  It was a good learning experience for me.  Yeah, it's going to be hard but I just have to try my best.  That's all He asks. 

My new comp is a stud!!  He is from Alpine Utah.  He Fuenlabrada and Mostoles (in Madrid) before.  He's been out 9 months and was a district leader in Madrid right before coming here. He's a hard worker and we get along great!!  He's awesome and I'm super excited for this transfer!!!  We had an okay week, not a ton of lessons and a lot of street contacting with not a lot of "success" but I'm super happy.  Monday we found a family and we had a lesson with them again yesterday so we´ll see where that goes, for now they're doing good!!  So keep them in your prayers. Froi and his family.  Tuesday we had a lesson with Bryan.  We had a family come to English classes and we taught them lesson one.  It went really good and were meeting again Tuesday so I hope there's potential there!  We had some less active lessons and some recent convert lessons that were good and we made a "plan of attack" for working with the less actives in the ward last night and we are super excited to start reactivation efforts.  We have 20 people were working with right now, and some of them are part member families so we are pretty excited and ready to work with all of them.  This transfer will be huge on reactivation.  That was basically the week right there!  Conference was super interesting schedule wise.  We watched the Saturday morning session Saturday night at 6.  Watched the Priesthood and Relief Society the next morning at 10:30 (there were two rooms and we split it up) and then we watched the Sunday morning last night at 6 so it was crazy.  I learned a ton!!! 

Yes, we are still meeting with Nadya.  We watched the restoration video in russian with her and she was in tears the whole time.  I know that's why I'm out here.  Not to convert the masses but to bring joy to one person and she is doing amazing.  We're having members teach the lessons over again but we're still at the lessons to help out.   Thanks for your support mom!  I love you!!!  Thanks for the prayers and you're in my prayers every night as well. I love you!!!! Have an amazing week!!

Love,

Elder Anderson

¡El reino de dios o nada!

A Few Photos from Madrid

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!