March 26, 2018 ~ Week 86

Hey Mom! Had another great week this week! Being a Zone Leader is going well. It's actually a bit easier than being a District Leader because I don't have to plan the weekly District Meeting. Only the monthly Zone meeting.

My new area is great though, and we have a lot of progressing investigators.

That's too bad to hear about McKay's elections, but it truly is the JR. High curse. 

I'm so excited for conference, and I'm really excited to see who the new apostles are going to be. (Hopefully I've met one of them). Haha, we'll probably just watch it in the chapel with the members, so it'll be in Spanish so that's not a big deal. It's true that I've had a lot of spanish speaking companions. I speak spanish most of the time, and honestly, I'm pretty proud of the level of fluency that I've reached. In the MTC I was behind a lot of people in my spanish, and I didn't think I'd ever learn, but I've worked, studied, and practiced a lot, and I often recieve compliments on my accent (my spanish accent, not dominican accent. I've tried to avoid adopting their way of talking because it's the equivalent of inner city hood accents in english) Haha, but yeah, it's good! I do sometimes have a hard time thinking of english words.

Thanks for everything mom! Sorry this is a short letter, I had to spend some time deferring my USU admission until the Winter semester. 

I hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Anderson

I lied...

So, turns out my companion isn't Elder Hodson. Transfers were crazy and so they had to change a bunch of stuff last minute. So my companion is actually Elder Sarmiento from Bucaramanga, Colombia, and he's an awesome guy! Honestly, he's one of the hardest working and obedient missionaries I've met, and I'm so happy to be his companion!

But yeah! This week was great! We have some great investigators in this area, and we also were able to contact a bunch of good people this week. We even had 8 investigators at church! 

About the memory card, I had recently transferred most of my pictures to a usb drive, so I didn't really lose any photos. 

Oh, and the charge on my card was from some scriptures that I bought. I wanted to start studying and marking english scriptures for when I get home, so I got some, and those are the ones that basically I plan on using for the rest of my life. But, I do plan on buying some garments as well before I come home because I'm pretty sure they're way cheaper here, and mine are starting to wear out, but I'll keep you updated.

I am so grateful for you, mom, and for everything you've taught and done for me. I love you so much and I know that it was not by mere chance that I was sent to be your son, but it was by divine design. I think we both had stuff to learn from each other. Thank you mom. Your are the greatest and I can never pay you back for all of your love and service, but I can't wait to talk to you on mothers day and then see you in July and give you a big hug!

I also can't wait to find out where Hunter's going on his mission. That's so exciting! Keep me updated please!

I love You!!!!!!!!

-- 

Love, Elder Anderson

March 12, 2018 ~ Week 84

Hey Mom! This week actually went pretty well, and we got transfers AND we had a baptism! So that´s awesome! I don´t have any pictures, because something happened with my memory card, and it´s not working, but I´ll try to get them to you sometime. 

So, I'm pretty excited because being a Zone Leader means that another Zone Leader will be my comp, and he's going to want to work. I'm going back to Santo Domingo to the zone of Central, and I'll be in an area called Cristo Rey. And my companion is Elder Hodson, and we were in the MTC together, so that'll be cool!

So, Juan Valentín finally got baptized, and it was a good service, so I'm pretty happy about that. 

But yeah, I just want to say thanks for your love and support with everything. I love you mom, and I'm praying for you. 

I hope you have a great week!

--

Love, Elder Anderson

March 6, 2018 ~ Week 83

Hey Mom,

Thanks for your email. I love hearing from you and hearing about what's going on back home.

This was another kind of rough week. I am sick and tired of disobedient missionaries that don't understand why they came on the mission and have no sense of respect or reverence. 

I called President yesterday to inform him about the situation. President thanked me for my obedience and talked with my comp for a while. Afterwards, my companion and I talked, and he apologized and I apologized for any pride I might have had, or for offending him in any way, and we decided on doing a "Week of consecration" for his last week in the mission. So we're going to strive for perfect obedience for a week. 

Then I called President back to tell him what we talked about, and he told me that earlier in the week, he had recieved an impression about me, and that he was glad that I called him because that was an answer to his prayers, and he asked if I would be willing to serve as Zone Leader. So I said that I would be willing to, and he thanked me and he thanked me for what I did, and said to keep the tablet until the last day like I had decided.

So yeah! Kind of crazy, and the interesting thing is that sometimes when you do the right thing, you feel a little bad because other people want you to feel like it's not the right thing, but I don't care what others think. I care what God thinks and I'm glad that I chose him because I'm his disciple, and I fear no man! And that includes my companions.

But yeah, sometimes that happens. I hope that next transfer I'll get a good companion. We'll see. But I'm glad that the Lord and President trust me to be able to handle the tough ones. I didn't know that I would have to deal with this so much in my mission and it can definitely be frustrating, especially when you're forced to live with people who don't share your values, but hey, life is hard sometimes, and God will always help.

Other than that, this week was good. We should have a baptism on Saturday, so that'll be good! But I just found out that Nate Johansen and I have the same exact release date! July 19th!!! So that's super cool that we'll be getting home the same day! 

Also, that's crazy to hear about Hunter's friends getting their mission calls. That will be so good to have a good month or two together before he heads out on his mission. That means that he'll be getting his mission call when? At the end of April? I'm so excited to find out where he's going! 

It really is an eternal summer here. There's a joke that I like saying and it's that there are two seasons in the dominican republic. 1. Verano (Summer) and 2. Infierno (It's a play on words because Invierno with a v means winter, but infierno with an f means hell) So yes I'm still making puns even though I'm speaking Spanish!

That's great news about Hannah and Hunter making their teams, and about McKay getting his life scout! Tell them that I'm super proud of them!

I hope you're enjoying your calling even though I'm sure that it's keeping you really busy!  I know that the lord blesses us when we serve, and I've come to realize that sometimes the blessings that he gives us aren't always random blessings in other facets of our lives, but they are a direct and natural result of the attributes and habits that we're cultivationg. Nothing in life is about what we do, it's all about what we're becoming through what we do. We're not earning heaven, we're learning heaven step by step.

Sorry I don't have a lot of pictures but the four I'm sending are of my new buzz cut, some caves we visited on Pday today, and the view of San Cristóbal (My pueblo) and you can see the capital in the background. 

Anyway, I love you guys so much, and I'm sorry for ranting a little bit in this email, but I'm trying to work hard and make you guys proud. I love you so so much, and I'm so grateful to have you as a mom. 

I hope you have a great week, and that you have success in all that you do!

Love, Elder Anderson​