"Bits & Pieces" from February 2014

February 3........
"yes a lot of stuff happened this week it was just a crazy weird week that I felt like I never got a handle on and then all of a sudden it was Sunday. It went by so fast!! but it was a good week. Ya the snow was a blast. On Tuesday was the first day it came and when we found out we were at a place about 2 miles from our house and it took us about an hour and a half to get home! It was nuts! All the streets were parking lots and it was horrible and it was like that all across the state! Its because all of the businesses saw snow and told all their employees to go home at the same time! And then of course people here in Georgia don't know how to drive in it so a lot of cars were crashing and it was just a mess. I guess on 285 the highway that circles the city of Atlanta there was about 2000 cars stranded and people in there cars for about 2 days!! They had lots of people helping and stuff. It was just hard cause the next day on Wednesday everything was ice and no one here can drive on ice. But it was fun on Tuesday, we went to the Mounts and called some of our investigators and stuff then played with them in the snow. Then on Wednesday we worked pretty hard. I didn't want to stay in the apartment so we went and just walked everywhere to see if we could help anybody. We got to help a few cars get out of places but not to much missionary work came out of it. But it was fun, we walked to Walmart and then to two of our investigators houses. Overall I think we walked about 10 miles it was fun. But ya,  3 inches of snow here makes everybody go crazy! The sister missionaries in our ward were down in Carrollton cause we had our district meeting that day and they got stuck here. They live in Villa Rica which is about 14 miles north and the ZLs and I didnt want them to drive home so they were at a members house in Carrollton for 2 days! So it was lots of fun. But on Monday we actually had a member call us and said he had somebody he wanted us to teach and they would be playing ball that night at the church and it was cool cause there was like 20 young black guys in the church playing street ball it was way fun but this guys name is Lamont Johnson awesome guy he is probably 40 or so and very nice. Talked to him a little bit there, and invited him to church and he came so that was great and after we taught him about the book of mormon and he loved it and said if I believe in Jesus I should obviously believe in this and so hopefully he works out great. He has a wife and 3 kids! we had a good turn out to church we had 4 of our investigators come so that was really good Tyrus Matt and Evaline and about the baptism, Evaline was on date for the 1st but we found out she wasn't married to her boyfriend and so we had to drop the date and we are figuring things out with that. Thursday was a great day because I got to go up to Buchanan and interview one of their investigators to be baptized! A 10 yr old girl named Alexis! I love that part of being a district leader, going and getting to interview people is way fun! And on Saturday that one less active that we brought back, Melanie Parker, she invited us for dinner and we got to meet and talk with her mom and boyfriend who arent members so that was great, very nice people. And yesterday we went to our bishops house for lunch and we had an awesome meeting with our bishop and created a game plan on how we are going to get the work going here in Carrollton.

February 10.....

"We had a good week with getting referrals and seeing them. We got a media referral and the reason he did it is one of his friends died and he felt he needed to get a relationship with God but we had an awesome first lesson with him and he said he'd get baptized!! And we had a lot of other good successes with at least seeing people this week. Nobody came to church... but that's okay. One of our gators, Tyrus had a lesson with some members and he said that he believes in the Book of Mormon and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but he just doesn't want to give up drinking and smoking even though he doesn't do them a lot. He doesn;t think its bad so we are just working with getting him to realize if Joseph Smith was a prophet and told us to not do it that we shouldn't do it. And guess what I tried last night!.... chitlens!!! oh they were horrible.  They tasted just like they smelt. But they weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be. I had them boiled. But that's pretty much my week, nothing too crazy happened.  We did have a zone training meeting on Tuesday. You might have seen some pictures of that on Facebook. and on Thursday I had the opportunity to interview a family of 3 for baptism! They are in the Buchanan area! And everything was a success for the baptism and confirmation so that was great. But that was my week"

Elder Anderson's District

February 17......
"This week has been a roller coaster for sure. We had exchanges a day early because of the storm and my new companion is .... Elder Jensen! I'm so excited. I love Elder Jensen! He's so freakin funny. I knew him because he was an office elder before and I got to talk with him then but its been a fun week with him so far and we've been working hard to try to boost up our pool of investigators, but yes the storm was no fun. Ice was everywhere!!! and A LOT of trees were tumbling down and it would sound a shot gun went off. But it was fun, we had to stay in the apt all day on Wednsday and half the day on Thursday, but we didn't go without power. Our apt is very nice so it wasn't too bad. It sucked being cooped in there all day, but it was kind of nice to relax I needed it cause from about Tuesday night last week till yesterday I have been sick with a cold.... I hate being sick its no fun especially as a missionary but I didn't let it slow me down. We still did all the normal stuff we'd usually do.  S,o Elder Jensen has been out about 14 months! and we is just a funny kid he has the biggest sense of dry humor and I love it! You would think he is socially awkward but that's why I love him. He's open with me so its all good but he is real good at basketball. We played yesterday and had fun. But we did have a cool experience this week, we knocked on a lot of doors this week and didn't find to much success but we went into a coffee shop in the middle of Carrollton to get some hot cocoa and while we were drinking it Elder Jensen got a tap on a shoulder from this guy and he said can we hang out with you? haha so of course we said yes and him and his wife came and sat with us. They are a younger couple, mid 20s and they are the trendy hipster type. But so amazing and prepared. They were asking us a lot of questions. They knew we were mormons, but they wanted to know how our missionary work worked and what we believed and how we are different than everyone else.  We had an hour discussion with them then they invited us to a bible study that they have with a group of friends on Sunday night! So we went and studied Acts 8:1-8. Iit was very cool to see what other people do but they are excited to learn more. We are going to their house tomorrow to teach them so we are pumped about that. But it shows you how the Lord puts people in our paths even if we are not the ones to start the conversation."

Elders Anderson & Jensen

 

 

 

February 24...... 

"This week was good. We had a lot of lessons with our investigators and found some new ones as well, one of which is named Darrell and he was so prepared. He knows a lot about the church already and has been a few times but was very excited we knocked on the door and when we were teaching him he said out of any church in the world that is living the most Christlike, and seems the most true, its the LDS church! He accepted a date to be baptized on the 15th! so we are excited for him and as far as the couple we met last week we did go teach them again and it was a weird experience. Surprisingly they knew way too much about the church. About all of our deep doctrine and things like that and so we had a long conversation about it and how we've come to know its true obviously from the book of mormon and they are struggling with coming to get an answer from just praying. They like to have evidence and things like that and they feel like all the deep doctrine that comes from revelation doesn't agree with the bible. which it does, they are just blinded. But we are going to see them again either this week or next. But another one of our investigators has been doing  a lot of research on Joseph Smith and finding things on him and its super annoying when they do that and find some anti literature and get caught up on some stupid thing then they wont read the book of mormon until we resolve her concerns. She came at us with 16 pages of notes with dates, testimonies, books of things about Joseph Smith, but the good thing with her is she has felt the spirit when we have taught her and she wants the church to be true she just needs to stop doing her own research and finding crap on the internet and we have told her many times to stop. So its been a fun week with of a lot of anti stuff and many crazy conversations but it just strengthens my faith more when they happen cause there is nothing someone could ever say that would shake my faith! And its sad to see all these crazy things that people come up with. But it was a fun week,  and I'll definitely keep praying for you cause I still cant believe Kody is gonna be married soon but I love you so much and I  hope you have a great week!
 

"Bits & Pieces" from January 2014

January 6, 2014.....
 
"this week was a great week it was kind of hard to get into houses cause people are still out of town and ya we have the flu sickness here sooo many people are sick its crazy. but we did have some success this week . We didn't get to see Gabby cause she was out of town a lot. but we did see Travis Boykin with a member and that went very well. We read a chapter out of the book of Mormon 3 Nephi 11 and he loved it he is seeing a lot of changes in his life since we have met and hes loving it. We are gonna go to rehab with him on Tursdays to help him with that so we are excited about him and then we got a new investigator this week named Evaline Boykin. She is about 50 and the blackest lady ever. Shes so funny, but we had a great 1st lesson with her and committed her to be baptized on Feb. 1! oh and on the 3rd was my official 6 month mark so I had fun and got to burn a tie! We also have another investigator named Tyrus that's awesome. He is such a funny guy and he loves to feed us. which is also very bad. He fed us a huge southern meal on New Years Eve with everything southern you can think of,  fried chicken collard greens potatoes mac n cheese  dressing(stuffing) gravy biscuits cornbread black eyed peas lima beans!! It was crazy and everything was homemade and it was soooo good!! Gosh I felt like I gained 10 lbs though haha. Then I had the same kind of meal at a members house the next day cause I guess its a southern tradition to have collard greens black eyed peas and that stuff on new years. Oh and I do like collard greens! but only if they are cooked right cause I've had them 3 times this week and one time they were so nasty but, then on Saturday. Tyrus took us out to breakfast to Ryans which is just like golden corral and we ate there! ha its cause everybody knows him there he goes there all the time! Later that day he took us to one of his friends house cause he told us if we really want to see a true southern crazy house we had to meet these people and oh how right he was! haha I think these people were more southern than the duck dynasty people no joke their house was a disaster, So messy, trash everywhere in the yard and stuff and it was gross but that's not even the worst part this place was a zoo!! In there small house they have 12 dogs, 12 cats, 6 birds, 3 cows, 3-600 pound pigs outside! and a peacock and deer living in the basement!!!!!! It was insane hahahah It was so funny and they were sooooo redneck like you couldn't understand a word coming out of their mouth and just swearing all the time it was hilarious. I was loving my life. When we first got there they were like do you wanna see our guns and they took out their 12 gauge shotgun their  22-250's, double barrell shotguns there rifles and they were shooting them in the back yard, all of them!! hahah it was so awesome the double barrel was sick cause it was an older one and so loud but ya that was my adventerous Saturday! I bet you are loving this long letter right now, holy crap I feel like I've been writing forever.  Anyways so on Sunday we didn;t have any investigators there but the sisters had 2 there and they were both black ladies. but the cool thing was it being fast and testimony meeting they both got up and bore there testimonies!! it was so cool. So the first one was amazing cause shes a younger girl and has gone through a lot. She lost her baby and stuff and just said that Jesus has been protecting her and teaching her a lesson and then the second one is an older black lady and man was I having a blast when she was speaking!! it was like we were in a baptist church and she was just preaching away saying thank you Lord Jesus at the top of her lungs and praising Jesus and saying halealujah!! hahaha it was awesome she spoke for like 10 min  and the ward was loving it it was great. but that was my week!"

6 month celebration!

Welcome to the ZOO!

January 13, 2014.....

"not too much went on this week except for zone conference which is always good we had a lot of good workshops and stuff where we learned some great stuff and the temple of course is always amazing and whenever we get the opportunity to go its great that's one thing i hope I can maintain when I get home I would love to go to the temple at least once a week. But we'll see how that goes and speaking of temples how is doing dads side of the family work going?? But ya not to much happened this week. As far as Gabby goes no she didn't make it to church cause she had to take her son to the hospital cause he has the flu but on friday we had like a heart to heart with her and she just is ready and she told us that she needs to know for sure that this church is true and that it needs to resinate with her. She feels like its just to rote and robotic kind of and she's still having a hard time with Joseph Smith but she is still reading and we haven't and wont officially dropped her but we will be focusing our efforts more on other people. But one of our investigators Evaline Boykin a 50 yr old black lady who is on date for Feb. 1 came to church! So that was great she stayed for all 3 hours and she enjoyed it. she was tired afterward though haha it was funny but what was cool is Melanie Parker. that less active I told you about last week came to church again this week!! and a family named the Kincades came to church and we have been working with them since I got here and they haven't been to church in about 7 months and they came and like 6 other less actives came! it was awesome.  It was the biggest turnout I've seen on my mission we had 224 people in sacrament! It was awesome. So that was the best part of the week for me. but we are starting to get more and more trust in the ward and getting a lot more referrals from them which is great! It was a pretty slow week nobody really wanted to talk with us and we got shut down a lot but its all good being here in Georgia its getting fun to see who can get shut down the worst! haha It's sad but true but as far as mission wide we are progressing very well with finding and baptizing so its awesome to see and ya I think I will be that elder that goes to all the bad wards and tries to pick them back up. Things are starting to get better. as far as less actives. things are going great we are having quite a bit of success with that. We had about 7 less actives that we work with that came to church this week and the sisters had 5 but that has been one of our huge focuses here I have found so much joy in bringing people back into the fold. More than my investigators coming back to church its weird but great! And we found 3 super super lost sheep this week and they were all nice. One let come in and he made us pancakes and we talked for like an hour and a half and he was so cool but all of them kinda are set in there ways and don/t want to come back yet but they all said we could come back. but thats been my week."

January 20, 2014.... 

"It was a pretty slow week nobody really wanted to talk with us and we got shut down a lot but its all good being here in Georgia. Its getting fun to see who can get shut down the worst! haha its sad but true. But as far as mission wide we are progressing very well with finding and baptizing so its awesome to see and ya I think I will be that elder that goes to all the bad wards and tries to pick them back up. things are starting to get better, as far as less actives things are going great  We are having quite a bit of success with that. We had about 7 less actives that we work with that came to church this week and the sisters had 5 but that has been one of our huge focuses here.  I have found so much joy in bringing people back into the fold. More than my investigators coming back to church. Its weird but great! and we found 3 super super lost sheep this week and they were all nice one let come in and he made us pancakes and we talked for like an hour and a half and he was so cool but all of them kinda are set in there ways and dont want to come back yet but they all said we could come back. but thats been my week."

January 27, 2014....

yes its great to be accountable for things. This world would be a lot nicer if more people would try and be accountable for their actions to Heavenly Father. But I'm glad to hear everything is going good back home with jobs and stuff like that I never realized how much of a blessing it can be to go through hard times and being able to push through things and come out for the better! I think tha'ts why doctrine and covenants sections 121 and 122 is like my favorite passage of scripture! But a member in my last ward said a quote that I loved and I shared it with dad once but its " a set back is just a set up for a comeback!" I loved it. But this week was pretty good. It went by so fast I felt like I couldn't get a handle of it before it started. But it was good for some reason. I just feel like we have hit a wall and we're trying to push through it or climb over it right now, but its all good! I feel like I have learned and still learning so much. On wed we had a lady that wanted to sit down and ask us some questions. It turned out being like a 2 hour Q and A of her trying to ask all these questions and it was crazy cause I was just coming back with these answers that I didnt even knew that I had! And it was awesome to see the spirit work through me and answer the questions and for her to accept them all, then to accept to read the book of mormon! And on Sunday we had a big general stake conference. It involved all the stakes in Georgia, Florida and part of South Carolina and had a satelite broadcast and it was great! We got hear from Elder Gay and Elder Kipiskche from the 70, Sister Carole F McConkie and Russel M Nelson!! So that was awesome, the highlight of my week! But something cool just happend. A  lady came up to us and started talking to us saying she knew who we were and shes met with us before and she wants to talk to us after we are done emailing to talk about how we can help some people out that she knows! a pretty cool miracle I think! but thats what has happened this week!