July 2, 2018 ~ Week 99

Hey Mom! This week was great! Jan Carlos is going to be baptized on the 7th of July and we've started teaching a couple more of his friends. 

Thanks for answering my questions. I'll try to take anything home that I think that Hunter could use in his mission. Oh yeah. The pants I was wearing in that picture were some that bought in my first area. 

Lol.

My pants have held up fairly well, and I have one pair that ripped on the side, but it was on the seam, so it can be repaired fairly easily. 

I'll DEFINITELY be bringing my scriptures home, don't worry about that. 

Oh, fun fact about Yadhira, she's Sophia's twin. They share a birthday, and she's also nine!

That's great to hear about Jarrett's old area. I'm happy to see my area progress, and to be able to help out all of the recent coonverts here.

Thanks for everything mom! I guess I'll only email you 2 more times before I see you for real! I'm so excited to see all of you and to be together again. I love you guys so much!

I hope you have a great week!

--

Love, Elder Anderson

June 25, 2018 ~ Week 98

Hey Mom! My toe is doing well. It doesn't hurt anymore, so everything is good there. That was actually the first time I've had to go to the doctor in my mission, so yeah, I've been lucky to have had really good health.

Yadhira's baptism went really well. We always have our baptisms on Saturdays. My comp and I plan on having 1 more baptism together, Jan Carlos, and then all of the news we get we'll prepare them for baptism at the end of July or the beginning of August.

Things are good here. I'm trying to make the most of my time that I have left here. But I'm also SO excited to see you guys and to be home! Haha, 24 days!!!

Sounds like you guys have been pretty stinking busy back home! I hope that you're not all too stressed out and that you really enjoy all of the activites that you're involved in!

Hey, quick question, do you know how much money I have in my savings account back home? Also, I'm trying to figure out what I need to take back home as far as the stuff I got for my mission. What do you want me to bring? What does Hunter need for his mission? Should I bring all of my pants and stuff back? Bedsheets? the umbrella?

Yeah, I took some money out because my card's gonna expire at the end of the month. I think I should have enough though. Thanks for putting that in though.

Nah, I'm pretty much good! Thanks for always thinking of and praying for me! I love you so much, and you guys are always in my thoughts and prayers! Love you so much, I hope you have a great week!

--

Love, Elder Anderson

June 18, 2018 ~ Week 97

Hey Mom!

This week had its ups and downs. I got an ingrown toenail, so that wasn't super fun, but I went to the doctor on Tuesday and he was able to get some cotton underneath the nail, so it's fine now.

It's funny you should ask about me speaking in sacrament because I actually spoke yesterday in sacrament meeting, but I didn't know beforehand that I was going to be speaking, because I guess the speakers didn't show up to church, so the bishop asked me if I could speak about the plan of salvation. I was actually pretty excited because I like public speaking, so I decided to speak about the principle of agency and responsiblity. I felt like it went pretty well, and surprisingly, I got complimented a lot afterwards for my winged talk!

I also just had my last Zone Conference this week! Elder Raps and I talked about the importance of the informe de progreso (Record of progress?) It was good.

This week, Yadhira will be getting baptized, and on the 6th of July, a kid named Jan Carlos will get baptized. They're progressing pretty well!

Also, did you hear that they're starting to make a new hymnbook that will be the same in all languages? How cool is that?

I love you guys and I hope you have a great week and I hope that you and Dad had a great anniversary!

--

Love, Elder Anderson

June 11, 2018 ~ Week 96

Hey! This week was good! Everything is actually the same in our companionship and house. (We just say apartamento) But yeah, things are good!

You´re welcome for the pictures! You can thank my comp, haha. We were able to go on a ward temple trip recently, and some of our recent converts went to do baptisms for the dead, so that was cool.

Haha, it's super weird how close I'm now getting to the end of my mission. Almost just a month left! I´m so excited to see you guys and the rest of the family! 

Mom, I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better! I hope you all have a great week!

--

Love, Elder Anderson

Life is full of Adventure ~ Week 95

Hey Mom! Wow, I'm sorry to hear about Tuesday night. That sounds terrible! I'm glad that that's over now though! I hope that that's the end of the problem and that nothing else happens! 

That's great that McKay got his eagle scout project finished! Good for him!

Sadly, I wasn't able to see either of the broadcasts, but I'm downloading both of them right now so that I'll be able to watch them at home. 

This week was good. We've got a couple of kids that are going to get baptized this month, but we need to start looking for some news!

Tell Sophia happy birthday for me!

I hope that you have a great week!

Oh yeah! And I am staying for another transfer, so I'll be finishing up here in Cristo Rey!

Love, Elder Anderson

Santo Domingo Temple

May 28, 2018 ~ Week 94

Hey! I hope everything's going well back home. I'm sorry to hear about your health situation mom. I hope everything is resolved and that it isn't anything serious. Please keep me updated. I'll keep you in my prayers. 

I'm glad to see that school's out! That's always really exciting. That means I'll be home super soon! Aaaahhh! But for now, I'm just going to keep working hard. We had two baptisms this week! Steven and Miguelángel both got baptized, and they also both got the priesthood, and they're going on the ward temple trip this Thursday. We're also now teaching Jefry, Miguelángel, and Steven`s friend: Jan Carlos, and he has a fecha for June 16th, and he's really excited to get baptized.

I think/hope that I'll be staying here in Cristo Rey for my last transfer. I'll find out on Saturday! Being a Zone Leader is going well. Ours is the only Zone in the entire mission that reached the goal of 2 baptisms per companionship in the month of May! Haha, so things are going well!

Something really cool happened this week. We left with the Second Counselor in the bishopric: Ramón, and we didn't have any appointments, so we felt like we should go to Steven's house, but when we got there, Steven wasn't there, but his mom was. Her name is Blendy. She was baptized about a year ago, and her husband doesn't really like the church a ton, so it's been kind of rough for her sometimes. So we talked with her, and we asked if we could share something with her. So we prayed and I shared a scripture about prayer, and we started discussing the importance of prayer, and then Blendy started to cry, and she said that these past few days have been rough for her. And that just before we came she had prayed for God to send someone to help her. 

Wow. That was a cool moment. It's amazing too see God's hand in everything and to be able to be the answer to someone's prayer. 

This week, I'd like to invite the family to pray to be the answer to someones prayer, and if you ever find yourself in a difficult moment, don't be afraid to pray for help. God knows us, and will help us in any difficult moment. 

I love you all so much and I'm grateful for everything you do for me! I hope everything goes okay with your kidney stone mom, and I hope you feel better! You are always in my thoughts and prayers and I love you guys so much! Have a good week!!!!!! ​

--

Love, Elder Anderson

May 21, 2018 ~ Week 94

Hey Guys, how's it going? Sounds like school is winding down now. Is everyone pretty excited for summer vacation? I'm so excited for the weather to warm up... Just kidding. Haha, it's been way too hot recently. Lol. When is the last day of school for everyone?

This week was good! We baptized Dorianni! She's 9 years old and her parents were kind of less active, but her grandparents are active, so her mom started coming a lot more frequently and her dad came to her baptism! So that's good.

Probably the coolest experience of the week was on Sunday. Jefry passed the sacrament to the congregation, and it was just really cool to see one of my converts using the priesthood to help others. It was really rewarding and it made me reflect on the people who encouraged me in my life to make sacred covenants and to righteously excercise the priesthood (Mostly my parents, but also friends, and ward leaders) And I'm so grateful for that. Really the only way that I can pay that back is to pass it on. 

I had great parents, so to pay you guys back, I have to strive to be a good, loving parent, I've had great ward leaders, so I need to be willing to minister to the needs of others. That's really what our relationship is like with our Heavenly Father. We'll never be able to pay him back for his perfect love, or salvation, but he doesn't expect us to pay him back, he just expects us to be grateful, and keep the chain going by helping others and to strive for improvement. 

I love you guys, and I hope you have a great week!

Oh, and Steven and Miguelángel are getting baptized on Saturday!

--

Love, Elder Anderson

Oh! And I was wondering if when I get home you would be okay with making pork barbequoa with cilantro lime rice. That sounds sooooo delicious!