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!!!