Mother's Day 2017

Mom!!! I don't really know how, but I'm pretty sure that during all of the excitement yesterday, I neglected to tell you happy mother's day. So... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! I hope your day was incredible and that you were told a million times how great of a mother you are, and that you never forget that fact. You are the best mom in the world! :) 

It was absolutely incredible to talk with you guys yesterday, and it's crazy to think that the next time I talk to you guys, it'll be Christmas again! Really crazy stuff! I know that I've said this a lot, but I really am so grateful to have such an amazing family full of people who love me, support me, and help me through everything. Haha, like I told mom yesterday though: "It sucks so bad that I have such an awesome family!" Because I miss you guys so much! 

This week was a good one, we have a lot of people that are progressing really well, which is really great, but also too bad, that we're having so much success right now that I'm just about to leave Neyba. I just pray that a really good missionary comes to Neyba to replace me. Someone's gotta come and help Givelord, Millord, Lionny, Yinairy, Mariely, Jeisy, and all of my converts here!

On Saturday, Selenni got baptized. It was a really good service and it was cool to watch her take that step in her life. She's got a lot of friends now who are really interested in the church, so that'll be great if she can help them out and have a whole group of good strong youth in the branch here.

I'll let you guys know next week where I'm headed next! I'm excited to go, but I think I'm also going to miss Neyba. There are some really great people here. I hope that I've made an impact here, and that I've had an influence in helping to bring people closer to Jesus Christ. 

I love you all. I hope you have a great week!

--

Love, Elder Anderson

Ps. Thanks for the pictures! The first one is the jugs of water we have, and this week I made a goal to drink an entire jug straight from the jug.

The other one is a picture of some crazy little girls that I met in Duvergé at a member's house

The last one is a picture of my comp with the branch budget, haha

Our most recent family picture:  Mother's Day 2017

I love to see the temple. I don't love four 4 hour guagua rides

This week consisted of a lot of work, but not a lot of what you'd normally call "Missionary Work". First off, on Tuesday morning, we got up at 3:30 in the morning to take a gua gua to the capital for the mission temple trip. We even ended up arriving late, because we're the missionaries who are in the absolute outskirts of everything. In fact, when they finish the temple in Port-au-prince Haiti, it'll be closer to us in Neyba than the temple in Santo Domingo. It was a really good experience though. I love the temple so much, and it's incredible to feel the peace of that holy place after all of the stresses of missionary work. 

After the temple on Tuesday, we came back and spent Wednesday and Thursday preparing for the trip to the temple with the branch. We had to buy the food, gather the money from everyone who said they would go, rent another gua gua, because the original driver cancelled on us last minute, make sure the rooms were reserved, and help people with family history so that they could take their family names. Needless to say, it was pretty stressful. It was a great feeling to be in the temple twice in one week though, and I'm positive that when I'm home, I will not take the temple for granted. We are very lucky to have so many temples so close to us. Where my companion lives, his ward has to save up to take an airplane every six months to the closest temple that's like 16 hours away driving. Then they stay for a week and fly home. Crazy! 

That's just about everything that happened this week though. Some days are hard, some days are incredible. That's life and the mission is no different. Recently, I've been trying to memorize The Living Christ document (In Spanish and English) and one line really sticks out to me. It says that "He “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38), yet was despised for it." Sometimes I feel like that. People sometimes say some very unkind things towards us, and sometimes I get kind of angry at the fact that I'm simply trying to serve these people, being away from my family, in a country and a culture that is unfamiliar, speaking a foreign language, and some people despise us for it. But then I think that that's what happened to Christ (Obviously on an entirely different level) It was not easy for him. His entire life was literally dedicated to helping, teaching, and serving, and he was despised for it. So, that just makes me think that the mission, and life as a member of this church is made to help us become more like Christ, and that thought makes me happy. 

Anyway, I love you all, and I hope you have a great week. We might be having a baptism on Saturday. We've been teaching this girl named for Selenni for a while, so we'll see! Also, I'm SO PUMPED to talk to you on Mother's day. See you then! Bye!
--

Love, Elder Anderson

May 1, 2017

Hey Mom! How's it going? My week this week was actually a HUGE improvement from last week. Let's just say that I decided the only thing I could do was to control my actions and just willingly forgive, and if anyone holds any kind of grudge for anything, that's out of my control, and it's on them. 

This week we had another baptism though! José Cristobal Morillo Vasquez is this awesome 16 year old that we've been teaching for a while now, and we called him a "miembro seca" or dry member, because pretty much the only thing he lacked was the baptism. In fact, a lot of the members were super surprised when we said that he was getting baptized because they thought he was already a member. It was fun to teach him though, because he was already attending seminary and everything, so he already had a pretty good basic knowledge of the gospel. I'll send you guys pictures of his baptism that we had Saturday night. And on Sunday, I confirmed him, and it was a really cool experience, because I've confirmed people before, but usually I have to think well beforehand about the things that I'm going to say, because you know, it's in Spanish. This time though, the words just started to flow, and I don't recall exactly what I said, but I know that I used some words and phrases that I KNOW that I did not know before, but they just sort of came to me. I don't know how to explain it other than that blessing was really guided by the spirit. 

Also, a kind of funny story from the week: I've actually become pretty famous around here in Neyba because of a joke I've been telling. The joke: "¿Porqué chocó la guagua?" (Why did the bus crash?) "Porque el chofer era una funda de pan" (Because the driver was a bag of bread). Haha, but now, whenever we see a group of kids in the street, they say: "Mormons! Tell the joke!", and I tell it, and they die of laughter. Pretty funny stuff, but what's even better is that we ended up getting a contact out of that of three kids that now have a baptismal date. So hey, telling jokes can be effective missionary work.

Anyway, that's about it for my week! I love you guys!

--

Love, Elder Anderson

Ola!

Hey Mom! Sorry, I don't have a whole ton of time, but I just wanted to let you know that I loved the package that you sent! I love you guys so much, and I'm so glad I have the family that I do. The Institute Director for the area delivered it to me, when he was teaching institute at our chapel, and my comp and I were going to get haircuts. I loved that talk from President Nelson too, and I'm also in the process of completing his challenge! 

Anyway, not a whole lot happened this week, we're just still teaching, and everything's going pretty well. I promise I'll send you a more detailed letter next week. Love you so much! Have a great week, and tell Hunter and Hannah good luck for me!

Love, Tanner

La Semana Santa

Alright, so first off, I'm ticked. Royally ticked, and I'm about to tell you why. This week was the week before Easter, and here they call it "Semana Santa" or "Holy Week" pretty awesome right? Yeah, not quite. Basically, religion here is just such a cultural thing that it doesn't mean a whole lot to most people. Easter Sunday, for example. A great time to go to church with your family, and remember Jesus Christ. Well, our church attendance bombed yesterday. Practically nobody came. And on Friday, the day in which Jesus Christ was crucified and died for all of us. Yeah, they pass the day doing exactly what Jesus doesn't want them to do... Drinking. SO MUCH DRINKING. Which means a lot of cat calls from the girls. And also talking with a few drunks. Oh, and they don´t eat meat all week. Just fish. So basically just a bunch of apostasy. Aaaahh. What can you do, right? Just gotta keep teaching, and hope that they learn!

This week had some redeemable qualities however. One of them being that my new comp is awesome! He's from Brasil, and I'm trying to learn a little bit of portugese from him! He's a really fun guy, and he'll be a great Branch President here. Also, we had 21 lessons with members this week, which is a personal record, so we work pretty well together!

Anyway, that's about it for this week. Givelord and Millord are still progressing. And I think they'll both be baptized next week. And we've got 4 more that are also progressing right now. Life is good, even though sometimes people are frustrating. Part of the mission is learning to love the people, and sometimes it's easy, but other times, you've got to have some heavenly help :) Have a great week! Love you!

--

Love, Elder Anderson

New Branch President, Same Pueblo

Ke Lo Ke familia!!!! I can´t believe it´s already Monday again. The weeks are flying by here in Neyba, and it looks like I´ll have a fourth transfer here! This could be my last transfer here, but then again, it might not be. I´ve heard that since President and Sister Nuckols are leaving, and President and SIster de los Santos are coming in June, that the next transfer will only be 3 weeks long, and that the transfer after will be 9 weeks. So we´ll see how long I stay for. All I know is that I want to stay as long as possible because I love Neyba. I just got a new companion though! His name is Elder Souza, and he´s from Brazil, so I´ll be learning some Portugese this next transfer! He was my zone leader, but our zone is HUGE as far as distance goes (the smallest as far as population of missionaries) so I never met him before, but he´s a cool dude! Also, he´s the new Branch President here, but since I already know how to do the Branch President stuff, it´s my job to teach him, and show him the ropes, which is super wierd, but kind of fun!

The rest of the week was really good! I went on divisions in Duvergé again, and we talked with this SUPER rich family that lives there, and have always been pretty good friends of the missionaries (they´re catholic by tradition, and aren´t interested in converting) but we were trying to get a job for a future missionary in Duvergé at the dude´s business. We talked with them for a while, and honestly it was SO enjoyable.

Also during the week, a member came to the house and took back all of the dishes that were his that I guess he had lent to us... And we were left with just about nothing. I didn´t even have a pan to boil water in. And we had 1 fork. Just one... So I called the mission office, and they approved for us to buy some new dishes for the house, so now we have a pot, some plates, and 4 forks! haha, the only problem is that we haven´t had water since Tuesday night, so now all of our new dishes are sitting in the sink, unwashed, and we don´t have anything clean. What a joy, right! 

Investigator report: I got Books of Mormon in Creole for Givelord and his brother Millord and Millord is almost done with 2nd Nephi, and it´s been about a week and a half! Those two are gold! Also, we had 2 baptisms planned for this past Sunday, but we postponed them due to the fact that one of them didn´t have very many times in a row coming to church, and I´m not going to baptize a less active, and the other told us that she REALLY likes coffee, and she had a hard time understanding why we can´t drink it. So those two will come along I think, they just need a little more time. I feel really good about having them wait though. This country has such a bad problem with less-active and Inactive members, and I´m not going to add to it. I´d rather have zero baptisms, and have my investigators be baptized when they´re ready by the next missionaries that come, than to baptized a hundred people, and have them all go inactive.

That´s why before I baptize someone, I like to read Mosiah 4-5 with them, which talks about the peoples reaction after King Benjamin speaks to them, and the results of their changed hearts. When Elder Andersen of the Quorum of the twelve was here, he told us that before baptism, every investigator needs to have two things:
1. A love for the book of Mormon
2. A personal experience of repentance with the Lord 

I realized that those are also the two of the things that we need if we are to becomemore converted ourselves. But one of my favorite parts of Mosiah 5 is verse 7, that says:

7 And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.

Basically, when we are "Born again" (Baptized) we are becoming sons and daughters of Jesus Christ, and how do we do that? With a change of heart (Repentance), through Faith on his name.

It´s a pretty cool theme, and I really love studying all the connections through the 5 points of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Anyway, that was my week, and I hope you all have a great week as well. ¡Les Amo!

--

Love, Elder Anderson

Conferencia General

Wow. Conference was sooooo goooooood! And it was even more incredible because I got a sick hookup with a laptop, so we watched it in English :) I especially loved Elder Hollands talk about the music of life, and having sunshine in your soul. In the priesthood session, I loved Elder Bednar´s talk about being called to serve, and being assigned to labor, and I also loved President Uchtdorf´s talk about the most important calling in the church being the one you currently hold. And I especially loved Elder Joaquin E. Costa´s talk, because I felt like he was talking right to the investigators there, and it was super good! Seriously though, I absolutely love general conference, and I always feel spiritually lifted afterwards.

The rest of the week was pretty good, we´re still teaching Givelord and his brother, and they both came to ALL of the sessions of general conference. ALL OF THEM. AS INVESTIGATORS. I was so impressed. I was talking to Givelord the other day though, and come to find out, he doesn´t have his papers to be in the country. Which made me so sad, because 1. If you don´t have papers here, the only work you can find is construction, or like working on a farm, and neither of those is lucrative, or reliable. He gets work like, 3 times a week at most, and gets paid 300 pesos (6 dollars) a day at most. I don´t know how he survives. and 2. He has a girlfriend that he lives with, but there´s no way to get them married if they aren´t citizens. So my heart was broken for him, because I want him to have this gospel so bad, and he wants it too. So one night, I was thinking about his situation, and I just prayed with all of my heart. Pleading with God that he might provide a way for Givelord to be able to be baptized. I had no idea if it was even possible, but I decided to put my trust in The Lord.

The next night, we had an activity in the church, and I was talking with Givelord, and out of the blue, he told me that he was going to break up with his girlfriend. He was like: "I know that if I have a wife, that I need to get married, and I´m not ready to get married" He also said that part of the reason was because his girlfriend doesn´t want to come to church, and he wants to follow Jesus. I was kind of surprised, but I told him that he should pray about it, and do whatever God tells him to do. Honestly, that was the most surprising way I´ve seen a prayer answered. I did not expect that to be the answer, but hey, it´s a solution. We´ll see what happens, but I know that if we trust the Lord, everything will work out. One of the scriptures I love to share with people, especially when we start talking to them about ideas that are a little different from what they´ve always thought about christianity is Proverbs 3:5-6 

5  Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Sometimes things don´t go exactly as we think they´ll go, but things will always be okay if we trust in the Lord. I believe that with all my heart. I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

-- 

Love, Elder Anderson