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

Reality Check.....

So the mission isnt anything of what i expected...Its hard long extremely hot people arent very nice and no really wants to listen to our message besides the members in the ward. I didnt understand why people wouldnt be jumping into the water to be baptized because of how true the gospel is. It makes no sense. And its just hard. And its just devastating. This isnt what i pictured. I do everything i am told, everything in the white book, and work so hard every day. What i came to realize is that this is truly the greatest blessing of my life. Though it may not seem normal for me to talk like that at the beginning and come to be grateful, let me explain my feelings.

First, Jesus Christ was perfect in every way, He is our Savior and Redeemer, the example given to us to show how to return to Our Father in Heaven. Yet people turned away from Him time and time again and ultimately was killed. This road that i am on is the Life of the Savior. This is an every day experience of what my loving Brother did for me. Spend day after day doing what is right in hoping of finding just one person. Even through all the bad, the hope of just helping one is what matters. So why should i have it any easier than My Savior? Why should everything come easy for me? It shouldnt. I must learn to understand what Christ truly did for me, and i can honestly say im not even close to comprehending. But i am on my way. And how grateful i am that each day is a challenge, and how every day is the same but no two days are alike. The mission is a blessing in so many ways. But i have a long way to go. I do things i am told, i follow advice, and just keep the rules. But this will only bring so much success in my mission. I do those things and give to the Lord, and for that i will be a good missionary. But what i need to change is doing those things because i know without any doubt that those things bring happiness and blessings. I must change from doing them in hope of good coming from them, to doing them in knowledge that my Savior and Redeemer will help me overcome all things. We have a saying, "become a fourth missionary". A fourth missionary is a missionary who gives himself completely to the Lord and does all he can in knowledge of what that brings. I give my time, hard work, effort, energy to the Lord. But i am still working on giving him my heart, cause when you give your heart to the Lord is really when you become an effective instrument in his hands. And not only that, you become redeemer through him. I thought coming on a mission would help me become the person i want to be in this life, truth is that isnt possible. But the mission can surely put me on the right path to one day reach it.

Days are long and hot with the heat, we faster for an investigator and didnt have water one day biking and that was extremely rough, i was weak and humble but i came to learn what a real fast is like. The members here are incredible!!! So loving and caring!! Every night we eat with members and i get to know them more and more, i still have a long way to come with the language but i do my best to show my love through my smile. As of right now we dont have to many investigators but we hope that changes, we could have a few baptismal dates set this week. We will see what the Lords will is. Me and my comp are getting along great! He is happy that i can work hard and that he doesnt have to baby me, so that is very good news. Its been a rough week with the language but i understand more and more each day. I wish everyone back in utah the very best and hope all is well.

Con Amor,

Elder Anderson

On the run already

hey!!

So president and his wife are way nice!!! truly such pure hearted people and i loved getting to know them a little bit!! they were so loving and kind about everything!!

My new companion is Elder Smith from payson utah im the first person he has trained and he has been out for 15 months now. we have a lot in common which is awesome!! He get along great! We serve in the Houston 7 ward in an area called Cloverleaf which is bascially a bunch of trailers but the people are way nice here!! And we get fed every night!!

The spanish has definitely gone right over my head but hopefully through time i will pick it up!! I really hope it comes fast hahahaThe people in the ward are the most loving people it has been amazing!!!

The bike is great already been using it! Only gotten attacked my three dogs no big D!! until the last one which was a pitbull ahaha but i got away!! Its extremely hot here!! its crazy its a wall that hits you ever time you step outside!!

Please send stuff!! like food hahaha 12800 woodforest blvd apt#2209 Houston Texas 77015

Best part of the week was watching a man pray for the first time and putting everything he had into it! and right after the prayer he received an answer which was soooo powerful!!! it was amazing!!!! Things are going great just readjusting everything! Hope things are good at home and love you all!!!!

Love

Elder Anderson

Out in the field!

We got a postcard from Josh today. It reads:

Dear Family,
Well I made it safe and sound, and already had the wall of humidity hit me very HARD!!! I'll be losing A LOT of weight! It's been a really nice and easy day. Which is very nice! I'll get my trainer tomorrow and will be getting started on the work! I love you all so much!

Love Elder Anderson

Friends on the Outside....

Here are parts of different letters he's sent home to us.

Happy to hear all is well and that things are working out! Its a highlight of the week to hear from the family and to hear everyone is moving forward and progressing! Still sounds like everyone is busy with their own stuff, of course! ha but its good to stay busy, it keeps you out of trouble! im so excited to get back to the states and get started in the streets! Its crazy how fast time flies by here! already a month down in the mission and i feel i just got here! its crazy!! but I'm definitely ready to get started! its hard to say goodbye to all the people i have met and gotten close to! but its all part of life!! I'm hoping I'll be able to call you guys from the airport again I'll let you guys know. Thank you so much for all you guys do for me, especially throughout all the years. I can't wait to learn and grow more out here. I don't feel I have changed all that much but the more I look at it I can see a difference. i just hope my mission changes me for the rest of my life!

until texas! love you!

Elder Anderson 

haha luckily things are easy here when you are stuck behind a wall!!! but even more lucky is that we have a new friend here who we pay to go get us tacos de lungas and coke!! we are the senior missionaries now which means we have hook ups and make it really fun here! a new kid got here last night and was freaking out so i helped him it was cool cause he knew some people from there at home so we hit it off pretty well! but we finished our last lesson with our investigator! which was nice! cause he was way difficult! but now we just have in field orientation friday, regular day saturday, sunday we just hang out and enjoy it then monday and tuesday we dont do anything cause most the district is gone by then!! its crazy! i already have been given my release date which is just weird...i dont even want to think about leaving haha i feel i havent even gotten started! its crazy to hear jordan is getting ready to leave! i have gotten way tight with his friend Elder Passey! he is such a sick kid!! well im just picking away at it, not much is new!! i went to the temple again today and did it in spanish made me feel good cause i kinda understood it haha but i know there is so much more to learn especially with the language!!! i hope i pick it up fast in the field!  im just excited to get there!! 

all i ask is that you send some new ties!!! im already sick of mine hahaha so i started trading them with the natives! it gets pretty intense hahaha

thank you for all you do!!! congrats on 27 years!!! only eternity to go!!!(It's mom and dad's 27th anniversary on August 26th) 

Love Elder Anderson

And of course it wouldn't be Josh if he didn't make us laugh...

 

Crackdown...

Well another week down!! Each day gets faster and faster!! It is so crazy! Its been a lot rougher of a week, we had the whip come down on speaking in spanish more from our teachers so we have been working a lot harder on that! My spanish is coming along rather well, I usually do a lot better when i am actually speaking to someone and have to puch myself to get them to understand me. But when i try and use gringo spanish with other Elders it doesnt go to well. Each day is packed with classwork which sucks...im so sick of the classroom. But luckily we try and make the most of it in all that we do. Monday was a rought day, i had to say goodbye to my two really good native friends, Elders Castro y Maldonado! i came to love them so much and got so close to them which has been way fun!!! they helped me so much with spanish, and they made it so easy to understand, i now have to go find new natives! well Sunday we had a broadcast of a talk by Elder Holland, it was intense haha he really knows how to put you in your place and he is not afraid of saying it!! but it was very strong and spiritual which i really enjoyed!!! not a whole lot is new, just picking away at the spanish and trying not to fall asleep in class, mornings here are extremely early! but i do the best i can. Some of the other missionaries are very loose kind of people and have a hard time staying focussed but its been good for me to learn that patience. We got a new investigator this week, and he is one of our teachers so its extremely hard to take it serious because we joke around with him a lot and now he pretends he has no care in the world for religion. so that will be a interesting experience to see what me and my companion can do. Other than that im just so ready to got get fully started by getting to Texas, i love the MTC and everything but i cant wait to be out in the field. i love you all and hope all is well!

Con amor,

Elder Anderson

Call Me..... Elder Ginger

Hola mi familia!! buenos tardes

Mi companero es Elders Danielson! The guy from LA I was talking about!  He is way funny and kinda out there! But in a good way!!  He has lived in California his whole life but went to BYU this past semester as a music major!!!  But I love him and we have a great time!! I'm definitely is learning patience though. I get interrupted every time I talk haha and some of the elders are very loud and have a hard time focusing, but no major problems!!  Tenemos dos elders en nuestro casa (we have two elders in our house), Elder Jugler from Ogden going to South Dakota, and Elder Tracy from Payson going to Oklahoma!!  We have such a blast!!  It’s been a party since we got here!!  We are always hanging out and talking and joking around!!!  So in each house apartment there are three rooms so six total people but we only have four which is way nice cause I took a pillow from the other room! pillows here suck!!!  So the first week was pretty crazy!  They still are working things out here so we kinda didn’t really have a schedule haha but that’s okay it was nice to have the first few days easy.  I have been assigned as district leader!!  Which is pretty weird for me cause I feel it is a lot more stress!!  I have to make a lesson plan and teach every Sunday in district meeting, which is rough since I hardly have time for anything else!!!  It is so brutal to be in the classroom all day!!!  Your head just wants to explode!!!!!!!  All the elders in my district are way cool, and we get along all so well!!!  It’s really a blast!!!  Hermana Johnson is way fun and loves the elders. Her companion, Hermana Newman is pretty cool too, she gets alot done too. Everyone together  make for some interesting times!!!  in my  district I have 5 elders going to Oklahoma, Elder Jugler going to South Dakota, and me and Elder Danielson gong to Texas!  The Hermanas are going to Virginia Chesapeake!!! So it’s been interesting talking with them!!  So no one in my district took Spanish hahaha so I have been helping them a lot cause I have some back ground in it hahahah and surprisingly I am doing very well with it!!!  I can pray and bear my testimony and hold a conversation rather well!!!!  I’m guessing that’s why I had to give a talk on Sunday....in Spanish ha yeah a bit soon but not too bad luckily!!!  And it was all off the top of my head because I didn’t have time to write a talk cause I had district meeting!  Anyway the food here is sooo good!!!  Beans rice and torillas every day hahahaha and then a ton of fruit and weird meat but havent skipped a meal yet!!!

One of the best things about down here are the natives!!  We have become really close to Elder Castro and Elder Malondoa!!!  They are hilarious!!!  And all the gringo elders told them to call me elder ginger hahahah which is pretty funny and they always talk about my pelo de fuego!! hair of fire hahaha I’m sad they will be leaving this Sunday but they said we have to come back after our missions so they can show us a good time!!! haha  So as you probably know my pday is on Wednesday and we got to go to the Temple today!!!  It was such a cool experience!!!  It feels totally different down here, spirit is so much stronger!!!  A bit weird that is was in Spanish, luckily the lord knows we did our best  in understanding it  hahahah other than that not a ton has happen!

Oh yeah I got sick already that sucked hahah but getting better now, not really sure what happened but it’s all good!!  We have an investigator named B**** and yeah doesn’t speak English haha but I’ve done very well in the lessons not so much elder Danielson, but he is getting there. we are asking him to committed to baptism tonight!  So we will see how that goes or if he throws a curve ball again haha

well not much more to talk about things are going really well and I’m loving! I know this is where I’m supposed to without any doubt in my mind.  It feels so good to feel that I finally belong!  And to have a purpose!!  It’s so amazing down here and everything about it is incredible!!  

Yo se que la iglesia es verdadero!!! el espritu santo es muy fuerte aqui, y me gusta que mucho!!! yo se que Jesucristo es tu hijo de Dios!! yo se que Jesucristo es mi la salvador!! estamos agradacidos para el evangelio aqui!! el evangelio es verdadero!!! puedo sentir Dios amor para me!! (I know the church is true.  The Holy Ghost is very strong here and I like it a lot!!!  I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and my Savior!!  We are grateful for the gospel here!!  The Gosepl is True!!!  I can feel God’s love for me!!)

con amor,(With Love)

Elder Anderson

Culture Shock

hola!! i made it safe!! it was way cool to see all the elders as we waited at the gate! it was a lot of fun talking with everyone! tell james randall that i sat next to the girl he told me about, that was going to virginia! she was way cool!! i was bummed! i met a lot of people going to virginia, and they were all so nice and friendly!! no one from utah was going to texas, but we met up with another flight in dallas where i finally met someone going to texas! he is from LA and he is way cool! we both got the change on calls so it was cool to talk to him and what he thought about it! on the flight to mexico i sat next to a kid from virginia which was reallly cool!! he was the only one from his high school to go on a mission!! i thought that was crazy! well now the part where you guys all laugh! so we got to mexico and had to walk forever to get to the customs part, and once we got there we had to fill out all this paper work, and none of the workers spoke english!! it was a bit of a test! then when we finally got through that we picked up our bags and had to go through another check point where dogs sniffed us... that was awkward! finally after all the security we met the president of the mtc, and a few of his workers.....yeah none spoke english... took us an hour to get everyone checked off with them as we stood around sweating to death! but we finally got to these buses where we had to pack ourselves in!! haha it got pretty intense!! we took a half hour drive to get to the mtc where we went through the city.....totally different from sandy!!! haha graffitti everywhere!!!!! like every three feet!!! and everything is falling apart and yeah it was crazy! all the elders kinda sat in silence as we all were checking out the guys trying to sell us things from the street! mexico city is SO FREAKING HUGE!!!!!!!!!! i was blown away as i saw it from the plane!!! it just went on forever!!! its massive!!! so we pulled up to the mtc and saw all the barbed wire.....seriously looks like a prison!! no joke!! we got off the bus checked in got our dorm rooms, which are seriously ridiculously small... i can jump from one side of the room to another....and im white.... anyway there are six to a dorm room and split into three seperate rooms. i havent met anyone in my room yet. we all went straight to dinner after dropping our bags off. first night food....costco pizza!!!!! so stoked hahaha but then there was this weird pudding.... dont really know how to explain it haha well thats about it for the night! i took some pictures dont know how to send any to you guys....but no big deal. ill talk to you guys soon!! i love you guys and cant wait to hear how all is going!!

love,

Elder Anderson

p.s. i look sweet with a name tag!!!

And he's off!

Tuesday July 9, 2013

After a long awaited adventure and a few months filled with change, Elder Anderson set off on his adventure. He will fly to the Mexico City MTC where he will prepare before he returns to Texas mid august.