I drove a fire truck and fooled by a 6 year old…. only me

Alright another week with lots of great things!!!
First monday i got to drive yes i said drive a flippin fire truck!!!!!!! Such a sweet pday hahaha that was a dream come true!!!
Second everyone will get a kick out of this......so we were over at an investigators house and we were just hanging out and all when the six year girl Angelica comes up to me and we start talking. We are best friends cause thats about my intelligence level with spanish....anyways!!! She brought some papers to me and told me they could help me with my spanish, so i start doing them making myself pretty good cause i know everything and all that. I was just having a good time thinking nothing of it when her mom, Sindy, starts laughing uncontrollable. I had no idea what was going on.... i came to find out all the papers Angelica gave me was her homework......i did all her homework for the week..... i got played by a 6 year old.... only positive thing that happen was that i was able to complete kindergarten homework in spanish....
Third, another really funny experience was me on the phone with a member. I was trying to confirm an appointment for the night but i messed up......I said "queremos confumar a nuestra cita este noche con usted" which means we want to smoke at our appointment this night with you....i wanted to say " queremos confirmar a nuestra cita este noche con usted" which means we want to confirm our appointment this night with you. As you can see they are very similiar but mean VERY different things hahahahha the member laughed for about 5 minutes once Elder Smith explained it.
Next, my bike sucks.....ha it has no wheels on it. Andddddd  has broken spokes thats sucks.
Last, this past sunday i got to confirm our investigator in sacrament meeting which was way sweet!!!!! Such an awesome thing!!!! Spirit was way strong!!!! Definitely a highlight!!
No much else is new. Getting ready for transfers and all that good stuff. I am excited to get done with training that will be way nice!!! I hope all is well at home and that everyone is doing good! Remember who you are and what you stand for!
Elder Anderson

Short and to the point followed by the explanations

Well this is going to be a short email cause im going to go ride a fire truck sooo heres what happened this week. We had a baptism, i saw a shooting, went shopping, almost put the apartment on fire, and taught like 19 lessons. Four people said my spanish sucks, one person chased us down i think it was a jehova witness( they are nuts!!!) and like 10 dog attacks. They really shoud put dogs on leashes more, I dont like the sprinting. But almost done being trained which is nice, and im pumped about that.
The baptism was way sweet!!!! It was so much fun and it was such a cool experience!!! His name is Miguel and he is 22 and he is a boss. A total cowboy!!! But it was the perfect sunday!!! I hope to send a picture next week cause it aint working right now sooooo love you all!!!
Elder Anderson

The next week he wrote the explanations for moms sake


Mom calm down im in the Lords hands and i am smart about everything i do. Shooting was on the other side and no body died. Yes i got the package. Thank you. It was awesome. For christmas i want a recorder cause some lessons we have i never want to forget cause they are hilarious hahahahah about the fire just a bad batch of bread sticks thats all. And for my bike is sucks.....broke again and has no tires on it hahaha but thats the normal around here apparently.
Dang you really did get into school thats nuts haha but good luck and enjoy it. Learning is something i truly enjoy now ha
Keep up the missionary work with all the neighbors!!! Its so important to get that help from members. Tell Jackie my thoughts are with her. Tell mace he is a boss but i still have more class haha 
Love you and ill send another email for everyone else
Elder Anderson

Put out the buds...

Well another week down in the mission, and another week closer to coming home. Any way to reverse time? The real world seems to suck ahahha plus its so much better being a missionary, only stress you have is helping others receive their eternal salvation, and honestly if you do things right it isnt that hard of work, cause the spirit does most the work. hahah but some sweet news... we have a baptism next sunday for one of our investigators so that is way sweet!!! Im so excited for that and hope it will be a tender moment for me.
This week has been pretty laid back, still working with some investigators who refuse to accept reality. But everything they say ends up contradicting themselves, so we just stick to the game plan and speak the good word of god. One cool experience this week was that we were at a park and we saw some kids smoking, so me being the person i am decided to go chat it up. I learned very quickly that kids that are high dont learn the gospel very well, but they definitely believe anything you tell them. WHICH IS PRETTY GREAT!!! by the end of it one kid asked for a blessing so is was a pretty awesome experience! And i made them put out their buds!!! hahaha I love doing the Lords work!!
Language is getting better, at least thats what everyone else says. So i am taking their word for it! haha i need a self confidence boost! One guy we taught the second week i was here we ended up talking with again and he was blown anyway by how much i had improved. But then he then continued to tell me that i sucked the last time we talked. So the self confidence was gone yet again ahahaha oh well pride is terrible anyway. Nothing like being humble again and again.
As of right now we have about 5 progressing investigators which is pretty sweet. Elder Smith and I have some high hopes for the end of the transfer. So hopefully all turns out well.
I hope all is well at home and that everyone is having a good time and not taking life to serious. If youre not having fun youre not doing it right!!!
With Love
Elder Ginger
oh and ps, dad i have been telling people that your a durg dealer....totally by accident though! hahaha sorry to ruin your rep here in texas!

Dogs Love me.

well transfer one is in the books. I feel pretty comfortable with everything but the language, but thats pretty good! Everyone says im a weird missionary cause im not afraid to talk, so that is some good news.
Well its been a rough week we turned over some investigators to the english elders, its rough cause everyone here speaks both english and spanish but its all good. I was bummed the huge nfl guys we turned over. I wanted to cry. But i got over it. I am still in the Cloverleaf area for this transfer so the address is the same. We taught 15 lessons this week but no one showed up the La Santa Cena, which is lame!!! Agency sucks but it is so necessary!!
I am getting sick of the rain!!! It gets so humid here and this ginger cant handle it!! haha but its okay ill make it through!! So im down 20 pounds that was awesome news!!! I also got attacked by a dog, that was way fun!!!! This has been a pretty normal week! Sorry for the short email, pday was yesterday but the computers were down so i have to make it quick today.Love you all so much!!!
Elder Anderson

Me, Mature?!?!?

FYI- Dave is our Uncle who was called as Bishop of his ward yesterday, and Jordan our cousin left for th eMTC in Provo Wednesday heading down to Paraguay. 

well this week was a crazy one!! my first transfer is almost up and it has flown by!!! this week a lot happened!!! so for tuesday we taught a bomb lesson with the Valdez family!!! i love them cause they speak english!!! so i can actually sound smart!!! haha but they are way cool and i love spending time over there! we also met another investigator from a referral from a ZL! she is boss!! we just talked to get to know her a bit she what she was looking for and everything but she has a true desire to learn the gospel! wednesdaywas new missionary training! and it was way sweet!! i spent the day with all the missionaries that came in with me and we got to do some from exercises with the president and the APs. President did saw some uneasy things to me though..... he would ask questions to all the new missionaries and no one would answer so i would, because we all know i love to talk, so i would tell him my opinion and talk about the experiences ive had so far and all that i have learn, and he said he was very impressed with how mature i was......ME? MATURE? i felt horrible hahahah but its all good! he also said that he sees leadership in me and likes how i get everyone involved and enjoying the work!! hahah the best part of the training was he asked me to bear testimony on our purpose, so i did and he said he was in awe of how i see our purpose. Everyone said that i remind them of Elder Walser who is one of the APs right now who have a weird but very powerful outlook on everything. so i guess that was a good thing, but its hard taking compliments when you feel so inadequate with the work. I have so much to learn and the spanish is killing me....i honestly think im getting worse at it hahah i was talking to a guy and he straight up told me my spanish was awful and he didnt understand anything i said hahaha it was rough! but the leadership training was awesome!!! President is such a stud hahaha and way to smart for his own good hahah he uses way to big of words! anyway thursday was a rough day nothing worked ourt so me and Elder Smith just had a game of who could pass out the most passalong cards....i lost...only because i dont know spanish though hahaha friday was i pretty good day we had some good lessons with some new investigators and we hope the go some where. one is a 19 year girl who just moved here from colombia to go to school! she was way cool!! we meet with her tonight!! Saturday i wanted to cry...haha we had exchanges and i had to run my area and the ZL that was with me is wayyyyyy trunky and didnt want to do anything. But i felt i made some really good plans and the day turned out really well with 4 lessons and 3 potentials. and i never had an oh crap moment trying to think what to do! which was really good, worst part is that he wouldnt speak to me in english so it was a whole lot of me sounding extremely stupid and pretending i knew what he said. haha there were a lot of laughs though so there was an up side!!! and we got some incredible food made by this Honduras family in the ward, it was bomb! haha sunday was a crazy day! first it started with me falling asleep in ward council meeting where the bishop made fun of me...but luckily he likes me cause im way close to his son who is hadicapped. so he let it slide hahaha but i definitely said sorry! we had a bunch of lessons with less active families which was way good. 

so here is some crazy knews!!!!!!!! do you remember matty baxter?? and how he got into the church and everything through his girlfriend and his best friend, who happened to be related??? well i was talking about how i play hockey and Elder Thomas comes up to me and asked who i played for and i said skyline, he told me that he played for cottonwood!! He was mattys best friend!!!!!!! and his sister was mattys girlfriend!!! And he told me that matty went on a mission and actually got home just last week from Oregon!!!!!! I couldnt believe it!!! hahah Elder Thomas let me write a note to him in his letter he was sending him telling him good job. It was such a cool experience and the spirit hit me so strong!! i was so happy to hear about matty!!!! 

Well only other news is that the weather sucks here hahaha the hurricane from mexico is affecting the weather here with intense rainstorms that just destroy houses here. We were worried that if the hurricane kept coming north that they were going to have to evacuate all the missionaries here. I dont think that will happen but the weather is awful here! It feels like a hurricane here. But we still go out and track and ride the bikes which is rough when your soaking wet but you just laugh about it and remember its worth it.

Well i hope all is well back in Utah! Big congrats to the old guy Dave for becoming top dog!!! ;) You enjoy the stand! And if i ever had to confess anything id turst the big guy hahaha He is a boss! Also congrats to Jordan for starting off the mission, crazy to think that he is already in the MTC, but i know he will do incredible things! I wish everyone the very best and hope everyone is staying busy! I love you all!!!

Love,

The Ginger Elder! 

Flat tires and running from dogs, exactly what I thought a mission would be...

OKAY SO HERE ARE THE ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS MOTHER: my Pday is on Monday unless its a holiday cause we write at a college library. please send money food clothes some sweet ties possible a better bed and bascially everything else i shouldnt have on a mission! haha no im just kidding. im doing pretty good i figured out how to eat off of $20 a week, which i didnt think was possible but it actually is. Food tastes awful no doubt but its fuel not food!! haha I would definitely love some sweet ties though. Im already bored of mine. Send some really crazy ones that people will ask about, maybe ill make some more friend haha and some photos of the family and stuff so all the members can see. i dont want to take my camera everywhere.

so news of the week! I taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and i start every morning doing that by simply brushing my teeth!! haha thats the moto in the mission. that everything you do, even brushing your teeth, should bring people to Christ. So my teeth have never looked so good ;) haha this week was bit of a hard one for us. Cause it was so busy everything got out of order and nothing really got scheduled. My companion has a leadership meeting wednesday so i went on exchanges with some english elders. It was way fun!!! besides the fixing three flat tires all moring biking 12 miles and teaching an EXTREMELY RACIST BLACK LADY WHO HATES BLACKS!!!! oh and she is afraid of the sun and is mentally unstable..... By the end of the lesson all we taught was that we need to become like Jesus, she took that a little to far as she thinks we now need to become jews..... and anyone who knows me knows that i was dying of laughter this whole time!!! IT WAS PRICELESS!!!! After that incredible lesson we came outside to find we had another flat tire...these bikes blow....so we had to walk to a store 7 miles away to get a new tube... and it started pouring rain.... totally what i thought a mission would be hahahaha but we ended up getting some pizza which was sweet!!! and we made a new homeless friend. That was cool too!

So this week we focussed everything we had to getting everyone in the neighborhood to a ward party that we were throwing! Everyone in the ward represented their orginal country and made food from it!!!! It was so sweet!!! There were like 9 different countries represented there and of course we repped good old America!!! Nothing like hot dogs and cookies hahaha but it was a way fun night with dancing and eating and it was a great turn out!! I got some guys in the ward to get on the stage and do a dance as like a talent show! It went extremely awful in a total good way! The ward laughed so hard and enjoyed me making a joke of myself. But it was really fun!

As to the real work, this was a tough week. Silvano is an investigator who is blind and has studied his whole life as a Catholic and he is one of those born catholic die catholic even if i dont believe it. So working with him is way hard cause he is super intelligent and knows the bible like the back of his hand, so he butts heads with us a lot. The Valdez family, my homies, commited to being baptized on October 13! That was way cool, but we have a lot of things to do to prepare them but they are the cooliest family!! Way crazy and funny and its way hard to keep them on subject but its way cool to be teaching them. Lucia and her family is the ones we found a week ago during the hour of power, and they came to the party saturday and loved it!!! They felt right at home and felt so good about the atmosphere!! So we are working on setting dates with them.

As of this week there was a couple more sketchy situations but its all good!!! hahah i have just learned to ride my bike really fast!!! haha there are way to many dogs here. We live in an area that use to be way nice until hurricane katrina hit then all those people moved to this area cause it was cheap, so we have ALOT of gang activity and drug cartel. 

So far my spanish still sucks but everyone loves the energy i have and how i make everyone laugh and feel loved. I have really hit it off with the youth, since ive been here we have reactivated 7 youth which like double the youth in the ward. The members are amazing!! Wish i could understand them, and one day i am sure i will!!!

Well all i can say is that estoy viviendo el sueno! Its rough but i wouldnt rather be doing anything else. I know this is where i am supposed to be and i know how much different i will be in two years. I am so grateful for this chance to learn and grow. I love you all so much and wish you all the very best!!! Keeping doing whats right! 

Con amor,

Elder Anderson

Jokes in the face of Danger

well another week down, each week gets faster and faster. It really is crazy! So the news of the week is that basically a lot happened haha I met two families who we are now teaching and seem way cool. One of the families was during what we call hour of power. Every Thursday night from 6 to 7 we go and knock a street, well we had no investigators this week so we fasted that day which was WAY rough with the heat. But as soon as we started hour of power we met this family. They were only the second door we knock! And the best part was the mother said that she has been looking for a new church and one that would get her children involved. So we shared a message with her and left after setting an appointment for saturday. So we went back saturday and she told us that as soon as we left that she felt her search was over, that she could feel are message was true. So we taught the lesson and they wanted to come to churchsunday! It was such a cool experience!

The other family we found is crazy! haha They had the lessons about two years ago then moved and we just happened to run into them and they invited us over. Its two brothers and one is married with two girls. THESE GUYS ARE HUGE!!!! like NFL lineman huge hahaha Both 6 foot 6 like 300lbs!!! Well friday night we went over to teach a lesson, when we got there a car pulled us and guys jumped out. One came and got right in my face and started yelling for my id and money, turns out he was a crack dealer, but for some reason the the spirit told me to joke around with the guy. SO i cracked a joke messed around with him a little bit and he chuckled and said that i had balls hahaha Well by this time Jaime, one of the brothers is by my side asking if i needed help and i told him no that me and the guy were cool and had no problems. So me and Elder Smith went inside while Jaime stayed outside and talked with the guy. When Jaime came back in he told me about the guy. How he sells crack to the lady next door and is in some gang and is pretty dangerous, and told me i had balls!! hahaha It was pretty funny, definitely sketchy though! The area im in is called the grind and it is full of problems. But i havent been in any bad situations yet so thats good!!!

We are hoping to have a few baptisms in the next few weeks which would be totally sweet!!! This past week i felt we were down in the dump with the lack of investigators but things really turned around!! Im really excited to see what comes from these new families!!! Spanish still sucks but ive come to accept it which is really good!!! Cause now the only way to go is up!! haha im a big hit in the ward cause i get along with all the youth really well and the youth in the ward in really struggling so it was nice to hear from our ward mission leader that the bishop sees the good work i do!! Elder Smith says i have a lot of potential cause ive learned a lot of things that he didnt learn til his year mark! So even though my spanish sucks i am doing something right!!! haha Only other funny experience i had was that we have this street where a bunch of woman try and get picked up, and im not really sure how we got into the position but one came up to us and started trying to get us to take her so i finally threw a passalong card at her and ran. hahah

I will send some pictures next week of everything down here in Texas. We have a huge ward party next Saturday where i can get pics with all the families and everything! Til then here are some from Mexico!

Love Elder Anderson