2 Bautismos Màs!

So on Saturday, we had 4 baptisms as a district, and 2 of those were my comp and I. I had the opportunity to baptize Juan Carlos, and Elder Torres baptized Emily. It was an awesome experience, and the service was really touching. I had the opportunity to give a talk about being born again. It´s pretty interesting that in the account of Jesus talking to Nicodemus he says that unless a man is born again he cannot SEE the kingdom of God, and if a man is not born of water and of the spirit he cannot ENTER the kingdom. I think that the two are different things. The baptism is the ordinance essential to enter the kingdom of God, but being born again is your conversion. I think that before baptism, you have the beginning of your conversion, and you begin to see the kingdom, but obviously conversion is a process rather than a destination, so I´m convinced that being born again is the lifetime commitment of living on the covenant path, and the more you progress, the more understanding you have, and the more you are able to ¨see¨ the kingdom of God.

Anyway, that was an amazing experience. Also, that same day, me and my comp traveled at 6:00 in the morning to Azua. Which is where we had a seminary and Institute teacher training. (So I´m pretty much Dad now) Well we got there, and Luis Santana was there! So that was awesome!

Other than that, there was a worldwide broadcast for all missionaries, and basically they´re taking out a lot of the key indicators that we´re supposed to report on each week. I´m pretty excited about it. 

Anyway, that was my week! It was awesome, and I can´t believe I hit 6 months this week! Time flies when you´re working hard! Hope everyone has a great week!

--

Love, Elder Anderson

Hitchhiking and more

This week was good, and it went by super fast! To be honest, not a whole lot happened this week. We´re just working with the investigators we have right now, and especially with Juan Carlos, and with an 11-year-old girl named Emily. Last night, we watched the movie ¨Joseph Smith, Profet of the Restoration¨ with all of our investigators. It was really awesome, and I think they all really liked it. 

As far as transportation to places, we basically have 3 options here in the southern areas. Walking, gua-guas, and hitchinking. We don´t have any far out areas here in Neyba, so we don´t really have to hitchike. But to answer your question, nobody has a car here. If they have a vehicle it´s always a motorcycle. We have one member with a truck, and it actually just broke down. Yeah, you´ve usually got to be pretty rich to have a car here.

It´s crazy to hear about life back home, but it sounds like everyone is doing great! Especially Jarrett!!!! I´m SO SO SO happy for him!

This week, I want to share something from the talk I gave yesterday. I was talking about The Book of Mormon, and the importance of reading it, and I shared about my parents, and how dedicated they were to reading the Book of Mormon in our home, and the special spirit I could always feel because of that. I really think that´s one of the best gifts I´ve been given, is a family, and parents who love the gospel.

Anyway, hope this week is great for you all back home!

Love, Elder Anderson

Santo Domingo and Back

Alrighty, so last Monday/Tuesday were pretty crazy. Let me give you the low-down. So the reason I had to go to the capital was to finish my visa stuff and get my permanent residency card or something. The plan was to leave from Neyba at 3:00 on Monday, meetup with another missionary who lives about an hour away in a pueblo called Vicente Noble, and then leave with him (Elder Stephen) to The Capital (about a 3 and a half hour gua gua ride). That was the plan... We went to the gua gua stop, and they said that there were only gua guas going to this pueblo just outside Vicente noble. So we ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​called the missionaries there, and told them to meet us at the other pueblo. So we arrived there, and I hitchiked with the Elder Stephen and the other Vicente Noble Elders to Vicente Noble. Then we sat and waited at the gua gua stop there for a couple hours. Turned out, there were not any more going to the Capital. Whoops. So we called the assistants, and told them we´d leave first thing in the morning. And the first gua gua leaving in the morning was at 4:00 am.

So, I spent the night with the Elders there. I was supposed to be sleeping in the mission house, which would have been incredible... But we got up at 3:30 to go to the gua gua stop. That´s where we met Yefrey. He was in the park at 4:00 am flat out drunk. At first he tried speaking English with me (Just Hello and Please repeated over and over) We talked with him for a while, and at the end, he ended up crying, and telling us how much he loved us. Haha, it was really, really funny, but also I felt bad, and I hope that he can get his life together. Anyway, the visa stuff went well, and I even got some Wendy´s in the capital (I appreciate fast food so much now) and took some pictures by the coast (see the link I sent). It was a good trip, but I was dead tired by the end of it. It´s a good thing one of my biggest talents is sleeping literally anywhere, and that does include gua guas. Haha.

To answer your questions mom, I don´t do a whole lot on P-days here. Mostly clean the house, Do laundry, take a nap (My personal favorite). There definitely isn't a whole lot of opportunity for recreation here. As far as investigators, Juan Carlos is progressing great. He hasn´t missed a day of church since we started with him, AND he comes to almost all of the activities of the branch too! The dude is straight up gold!!! He was telling me last week that he actually grew up in Madrid, Spain, so I was telling him about Jarrett, and the areas he had. 

As far as Sundays here, I usually spend the class time handing out roles and putting out any fires there are (and there is always someone that has a problem for me to take care of) That´s my week though! It was pretty good, and we got transfer calls, and everything in Neyba´s the same. Which is a relief because I love this place! Anyway, love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Anderson

P.S. I can´t think of anything I need now, but if I do, I´ll let you know

P.P.S. Here are some pictures!

January 9, 2017 - Week 23

Hey hey hey!

How´s it going? I hope that this week was great for everyone back home, because it was great for me! First of all, we have 3 investigators who attended church this week. And we have about 5 who I could see getting baptized in the near future. 

Saturday was actually a super fun day for me! We had a special all day leadership training and it kind of felt like I was throwing it back to Student Government. I gave a bomb message about Zion, and what we could do as a Branch to become more like Zion, and more unified with one heart and one mind. It felt good to do some public speaking, and I actually felt pretty comfortable with my Spanish. I´ve never really been one to plan out every word I´m going to say, so I´m happy that I´ve gotten to the point in my Spanish where I can write down points, and then just flow with the crowd, the spirit, and the vibe of the room. 

So, my week was pretty great! We taught some good lessons, we ate some good food (rice and chicken), and I´m taking a gua-gua to the capital right after this to do some visa stuff, so hopefully I don´t get deported!

As a quick spiritual thought, I´d like to share something from my discourse I gave during the leadership training. First of all, in Moses 7:18 Zion is defined as having one heart, and one mind. Then, I asked the question, what is one heart? Well, in Mosiah 18:21 The Church of Christ is commanded to have their "Hearts knit together in unity and love" And preceding that statement, the invitation is to have "Look forward with one eye, having one faith, and one baptism" So, the recipe for one heart is one eye (a common purpose or goal) one faith (focused on Christ) and one baptism (All living up to their baptismal covenants) and to be of one mind, means to be unified in all decisions, and to sustain leaders in their callings. It was a really interesting study in what it means to be unified, and I would highly reccomend a personal study on the subject. 

Anyway, that was my week. I hope you all know how much I love you, and I hope your weeks are incredible! 

Love, Elder Anderson

Feliz Año Nuevo

Hey everyone! Hope your new years celebrations were great. Here, we had to be in the house by 6:00 pm because I guess the streets get pretty dangerous. It was good though! I can´t believe it´s 2017. This year stinkin flew by! 

Not a ton happened this week, especially with all of the Holiday Festivites, and tithing settlement. We spent a lot of time at the chapel. But! I do want to share a little bit about a new investigator that we have. His name is Juan Carlos, and he´s pure gold! One day, he just showed up at church, and so we talked with him and we´ve now taught him a couple times, and the best part is that he ALWAYS reads the pamphlets that we give to him, and he ALWAYS has great questions at the end of the lessons. I´m so pumped for him, because we put a fecha for the 28th of January, and it would be really surprising if it fell through, because he is so receptive, and so smart. What a blessing to be able to teach him. So please keep him in your prayers!

Anyway, thanks for everything! I love you all lots! Hopefully I´ll have more news for you next week. 

Love, Elder Anderson