"Bits & Pieces" from February 2015

February 2, 2015......

It was a great week this week, so much went on. But to your surprise I did not watch the superbowl:) Ha I really didn't even think about it. I didn't even know who won until I read your letter but dad did just gave me the play by play on how the game ended which stinks for Seattle haha.  I haven't gotten the family history stuff yet, it will probably come today so I'll look out for it. They are having a black family history seminar close to here and I might try and sneak by and see whats up. But as for your member questions the ward here is great. It's pretty small activity wise. There is probably 150 to 175 that show up each week and of that we have like 5 families that are super solid on missionary work that help us out all the time. They do feed us which is great, we average like 5 meals a week. but ya we do have some great members here that help us out a lot. 

As far as the week! Man am I exhausted! It was an awesome week. Ringston is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!! He was baptized by his friend and the greatest member we got, Bro. Baumgardner! The sisters in our ward had 2 more baptisms as well so the Conyers ward is just splash city!! I'll send the pics. And the meetings we had this week went great. The one on Tuesday was to help all of the district leaders be more effective in there planning so that was good. And ya Elder Pehrson did get moved up to AP so its fun having those 2 brethren at the top cause we get to work with them a lot. Then on Wednesday we had the privilege to go to the stake presidency meeting and sit and council with them on how the stake is doing and we are planning on a big meeting with all the ward mission leaders, the bishops, the high councilmen, and all the missionaries on how we can move the work forward better, so that was pretty cool. Then on Friday we had our mission council down in Fayetteville at the mission home and had some great discussion of new things we are going to install in the mission. So it's been a pretty crazy week still trying to meet with people and get that stuff down. But I have had a blast this week, It's moving fast, I cant believe we are in the 3rd week of the transfer already!

Baptism Day!

Work, Work, Work!

 February 9, 2015.....

Life is great here in Conyers!  And yes, this week finally felt like somewhat of a normal week considering all the days we have had. Some of the investigators we are working with, Robert and his 3 nephews, David, Chris, and Dorian,  we got them into a members home this week to have dinner and a lesson and it went very well. They are progressing and coming to church. Robert has been coming for a very long time, so hopefully we can get them all in the water but the ward loves them and they are doing great. Kevin  is our other big priority right now. Awesome kid who is 16 and a friend of a member family that has been coming for a few months. But he is such a sharp kid who understands everything and really wants to be baptized. He is just making sure he is doing it for himself and not for anyone else. He just doesn't want to be forced. So we are taking it a little slower with him. But he is great and the ward has really latched on to him. 

But things are going great. I love it here in Conyers.  The people are great.  We had dinners with one of the greatest families I've ever met on my mission and I hope I can always stay in contact with them, the Pierces. She cooks the best food I've ever had. She said for you to send your soda cracker pie recipe so she can make it for me cause I was bragging about it! So you should definitely do that. But we do have the big stake meeting this week with all the bishops, ward mission leaders, high council, stake presidency and president Harding so that'll be great and hopefully we will see a big shift in working more closely with the ward councils and missionary work to combine the members and missionaries!

February 16, 2015.....

   

Things went well this week, it was different cause we had so much going on that we didn't have time to work in our personal area much. That, and I've been dealing with a crappy head cold the past 3 days and its now just starting to leave so its been a "blast" dealing with that. But thanks for the package. I did get it and I loved the picture. That was super cool, it made me remember all the good times.  It's crazy how long I've been out and how far I've come its so cool. But the stake meeting went very good!! We had all the missionaries, the stake presidency, Pres. Harding, all the bishops, and all the ward mission leaders and talked about expectations and new things that the stake was implementing. It was basically a reproving with sharpness and love to do better! But it went very well and I'm glad all the planning for that is now done. Then we went on 2 exchanges this week.  I was down in Jonesboro on Tuesday with a greeny, Elder Clay from Idaho. That was a blast, we did a lot of great work down there. and then on Friday we did a blitz down in Jackson which is super country and I got to be on bike down there so it was good to do that again.  Other than the fact that it was below freezing.. (probably why I'm sick) but it was good they have been struggling a lot and we got to help them with a bunch of stuff.  

Overall it was a good week we are still working with a lot of the same people, nothing to new with them. We had 5 people come to church this week, a few part member families as well as Kevin. So we are excited for this week to be able to work more in our area and get things going. And last p-day was so sick. I'll send some of the pics of the cars. dad would have loved it. and today we are having a zone elders P-day so that should be fun just playing a bunch of different games!

P-day fun

 February 23, 2015.....

Have y'all had any missionary experiences or opportunities lately? I there is something I can testify of its the power of Member missionary work. It's so vital! I have learned the good way to do it and the bad way since I've been out here.  And I have also learned if you want to have the spirit more with you in your life all you need to do is share the Gospel. That is why us missionaries have it all the time is cause that is all we do 24/7.  But when we share the gospel it gives us the opportunity to bear our testimony of what we know to be true and as we do so we will fill the spirit testify through us to those that we are sharing it to. So I invite you to always be looking for the opportunity to bear your testimony and share the gospel. It might be hard in Utah but there are plenty of nonmembers there. Read the book 'The Power of the Everyday Missionary's". Its the best book ever, I love it! Its how we need to live our lives. That,s my testimony for the week.

This week went great. We got to teach a lot of lessons which was awesome!! We are working with the same people. Not to many people that are new just trying to help the ones we have progress. The sick bug got most of our people for church. But Elder Clayton and I got some exciting news today. We are staying together another transfer! Weird to think its already been a transfer... but we are getting a new greeny!! So we will be training as well! So I'm excited for that, to help push us even more. Pres. Harding has been doing that lately, having the zone leaders train as well. So it will be sweet. We are going to create a monster in the mission field! So that's the exciting news this week! 

 

"Bits & Pieces" from January 2015

January 5, 2015......
 

Happy New Year!!! 2015! Its crazy I cant believe it.  If there is one thing I will take away from President Harding, its to ALWAYS have a positive attitude about everything! Anything that is not faith filled, uplifting, or good is from Satan and as easy as it comes into our minds it's just as easy to cast it out and lift our thoughts to a higher plane of thinking. It seems harder said than done. but its been cool to see since I've been out here, that if any temptation or negative thought comes into my head if I let it sit there then it gets more and more negative but if right from the start I change that thought to a positive one and try to lift my thoughts, the difference it makes is awesome. And he is the best example, I swear that man is never negative or unhappy and will always lift your spirit. 

But this week for us was pretty good we didn't get back with that family cause they have been out of town but we should be seeing them tomorrow. and as for the church attendance and most of our meetings with our progressing investigators were shot down by the sick bug! But because of that we just hit the streets hard and found a lot of new people to teach so that was good. We also had a new missionary training which are always fun to go to. Then this week we have zone conference and another trip to the temple which I am always grateful for!

Some of my goals will go along with the mission and some goals that President set out for us. Each missionary wants "15" in "15" so 15 converts in the year 2015! I got half the year but I know I can do it with some faith. 10 baptisms 4 less actives returning and the big 1 is going to be me! So that will be my big mission goal and hurrah before I leave. and I set some other ones for coming home too. But the new year is great for all of us to reflect and think of what and how we can become better. I wish as a people we would do it more often than just the new year. But I am excited for 2015 and what it will bring, enduring to the end of the mission, returning home, football, school and many, many more! I am excited!

 

Hitting the Streets!

 

 

January 12, 2015....

 

The work is going great here. We did have a cool miracle this past week when we have been trying to teach this 16 year old kid and his family. We met him in the street, but on friday night he texted us and said come pick me up for church on Sunday!! So he came and loved it and we should be teaching his family this week. we also had 2 other people come this week so it was a really good week for us in church attendance.

Zone conference was awesome as usual and before President Harding had us study our patriarchal blessings and try to receive some revelations regarding questions to the work and our own personal questions. and I don't know if its a gift of mine or what but it was the 3rd time that I have had a scriptural revelation in the temple of where I just flip open the page and look at a scripture and there is my answer. And this time it led me to ponder a little more and to dig, but I found a chapter that explains my patriarchal blessing in full and it was awesome! I love the temple! It's the best place

But as you probably already know I'm leaving the city! I am going o be a Zone Leader somewhere! I'm pretty excited to just work my butt off for my last 3 transfers it will be fun. We are thinking I am  going either to Conyers or Powder Springs so I guess you will find out next week for sure! 

P-day Rugby

January 19, 2015.....

So you will be happy to see that this letter will be a super long email.  I feel like I have so much too talk about and hopefully I remember everything to put in the email. So where do I start with the new transfer!! It's been crazy, I am now in Conyers! My new companion is Elder Clayton. He is from Farmington and he has been out the same amount I have been, most of his mission he has been a spanish speaking missionary but they moved him to be a zone leader 2 transfers ago. He is such a great missionary, very organized and on point with everything and we get along great so its been fun to learn a lot from him these past few days. Our zone consists of 17 companionships and 4 districts and we got to travel around to each district leader and talk about the transfer and what we expect. But I have just loved being able to serve and love and uplift all these missionaries in the zone and try to create the high level of faith that we need to accomplish what the Lord wants. Our zone is the top performing right now and we are just focusing on how we can maintain and increase and achieve greatness! But at least in our area we have SO MANY families that we are working with that are progressing towards baptism! We have 8 on date right now. Kevin is an awesome kid who is a members boyfriend.  He is 16 and is getting baptized this weekend! So pray for him, then a family who have 2 little kids are so prepared and love the book of mormon will be baptized on Feb 7! We have some others as well but this has been the first area I have been able to come into that has some great things already prepared so its been fun to be able to jump right in! Being a zone leader I really feel has been a great call to repentance! It has been great to reflect on these past months and see what I have needed to change and I feel like it came and the right time to push me through these last months and show me how much I can really accomplish. 

I just want to testify of the power of being exactly obedient to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We cannot fail if we do so. If we can do all in our power and run the faith cycle talked about in Alma 32,  trust in the lord with all our heart ( Prov. 3:5) and look unto the savior in every thought we can achieve greatness!! It's amazing and I have seen it since I have been here in just these 5 days! Its incredible!

Oh and my last day in Atlanta, one of the members came and wanted the missionaries to get the Thomas S. Monson award for scouting so you would be proud of me cause I did it:) now I have a nice necklace:)

 

Receiving the Thomas S Monson Scouting award

Elder Anderson and Elder Clayton

 

January  26, 2015......

I think that's so awesome that you have been able to see a spark with the family history work! It's nice having something to drive you, but thanks for sharing your experience with me I think that is so awesome. You gotta love the scriptures and what an influence they can have in our lives and I just think its so cool how we all can receive personal revelation cause that's what its all about! I have been reflecting on that too for when the time comes when I will leave this time out here, that if I can live my life worthily of a temple recommend and be able to fulfill those covenants and ordinances for my family then I will be successful and happy in this life and in the life to come! 

This week was probably the busiest week I have had on my mission. We accomplished so much in the little time we had. We were running constantly but I've never had so much fun! It's so cool to see how God can just keep you going even when you don't think you have enough energy to do something. We were able to connect with a lot of our investigators except for one. We had 6 people at church on Sunday!! My new record! so that was awesome.  We had Ringston who is a friend of a member. He is from Kosrae which is in the island in Micronesia he will be getting baptized this week!! So we are excited for him. He is such a humble loving guy that has been soaking up everything. And then we had a guy named Robert and he brought 2 of his nephews and they have been taught for a lot of months now we just have to get him living the word of wisdom and he'll be baptized. And then we had my favorite family come. Rusty and Kashia and they brought their 3 little boys but they are so awesome. It was their first time coming and they loved it! The ward did such a great job fellowshipping them and loving them and I guess Kashia said in relief society that she was a future member! So we are excited for them. Their date is for Feb 7! and whats cool is Rusty is a country singer and putting together his first album. He is sooo good, has a super deep soul country voice! It's cool to see how much these 2 have embraced the gospel. 

But this week is gonna be even crazier! We have an all day leadership meeting tomorrow when we are going to help the district leaders with a bunch of new things that we are implementing and then we will be going on exchanges on Wed. and then on Friday we have our mission council with just the zone leaders and that's when we'll discuss the issues of the mission as well as plan on what we will be teaching in our zone training meetings which will be next week and then we will have our baptism on Saturday! I don't know when we will have time to breath! But our zone has been incredible. We hit all time highs on the indicators this week so its been real fun to see the success and the happiness of the missionaries! As for p-days here in Conyers, we play ball like everywhere else. I think today we are just gonna chill cause we are pretty exhausted from last week. Thanks again for getting all of that family history stuff done for me. I love you and miss you and I hope you have a great week!

"Bits & Pieces" from December 2014

December 1, 2014....
 

I'm glad to hear y'all had an awesome Thanksgiving! I wish I could have been there. But next year I will be:) Thanks for the package.  We loved it and all the elders say thank you.  I'll send the picture of the tree, and the pies did hold up. They were a little smashed but they were sooo good. I've missed them so much. It has been too long since I've had some soda cracker pie. And it was funny when we were sitting on the Marta Elder Lanier and I were talking about our families and what we did and the one thing that stuck out in my mind was "up the river down the river!" I can't wait to play it again and just beat you! It'll be good.

I spent my Thanksgiving with two families. The first one was the Hinkle family, which was so good. She invited her daughter and her kids so it was really fun. We just hung out with her two boys and it was good cause the daughter really wanted a blessing so we were able to give her one. Then our second one was sooooo good. Sis Reams, who was in the Carrollton ward when I was there recently moved over here to Atlanta, so when she saw me at church she invited us over and all her family came so it was good to see some old faces. She is just an older lady that lives there by herself but she makes the best food!!! We had  a smoked turkey with duck, the best mac n cheese, and some real good collard greens.  We had so much food, and then she sent us home with like half of her kitchen!! She is so funny, I love her. We did have some cool miracles this week. We found a family of 6 that were open and willing to learn more! but transfer news, Lanier is leaving and I am getting a missionary who is 6 weeks old! I'll be 2nd training him so it'll be a blast and I know who it is because he is serving in college park which is still in the ward. His name is Elder Clarke. He is from Grantsville.  I am staying in the apt with Elder Clarke and they are white washing us into Elder Marriott and Elder Hansens area so I'll be in a different proselyting area and they are white washing them down to college park. Then they are bringing a trio into our apt. and one of those will be the DL and another Elder will be training as well so there will now be 5 in the apt! Crazy, I know. 

 

 

Thanksgiving with Sister Reams

 December 8, 2014....

I'm glad to hear y'all had a great stake conference. The scriptures have been my favorite since I have been out. I never thought I would like to study or anything like that but I wish I could do it for hours. I hope I stay the same when I get home and that I don't let other things distract me.

The new area is pretty good, a lot more run down and ghetto than my last area:) but its still nice. We are just lucky at least one of us is half black and big cause if not it might get a little weird. But I do love it and we are working with some incredible people. A few of them are on date. One guy is so open and wanting to learn. He was taught when he was in DC and moved down here and wants to be baptized. Another man, who is an uncle of a member who has been taught for awhile now.  He needs to work on the Word of Wisdom and he'll be dunked. Then this week we were knocking and found a family of at least 3. We were talking to them about coming to church and they said that their aunt went there and she is an awesome member who is just getting back into activity!! It was so cool and the 2 young ones have already been to our church so we were pretty stoked on that miracle. So we do have a lot of great families we are working with right now.

My new companion is Elder Clark from Grantsville UT. He's a great kid with a good heart. I'm excited to work with him. And the new five man is awesome. Elder Webster is the DL. He was an assistant to the President for like 9 months. He only has 6 weeks left and then Elder Meservey who is one of my homies of the mission are training elder Kalosi who is super chill so its fun. We are both training. and Elder Webster is my new running partner and we have been hittng it real hard since he is going home. But everything is going good I'm excited to get more familiar with the area and get things rolling.

 

Elder Anderson and Elder Clarke

December 15, 2014.....

I'm sorry this email might be a little short. We don't have to much time to write today. That's so cool y'all get to go to Virginia!! And y'all are going to be in Atlanta!! Just think when your'e in the airport you will be about 10 miles away from me!!! How scary is that! You could hop on the Marta train and be to me in 4 stops! haha JK don't do that...

Thanks for the early Christmas present with the 12 ways of Christmas!! Its super cool. We enjoy it and we read it each night before we go to bed. I have opened the Increase, Shelter, and Rescue ones. I really enjoy it so thanks. This week was pretty good and ya we did teach that family and they are super cool and want a change in their life. They were supposed to come to church this week but 2 of them were isick, so they all just stayed home. Everyone else is doing good. We are just trying to make sure everyone we teach are keeping there commitments. I love being here in Atlanta, we get to see some crazy stuff everyday that I'll never experience again so its fun. I'm just soaking it all in.

I hope y'all have a great safe trip to Virginia and back. Let all of the family know I say hi and love them and to write me so I can get to know them better.

 

 

 December 22, 2014....

So I know you said that this cant be a short one but.... it might be:)

I can't believe its already time to skype again. And to think when the next call comes it will be time for me to come home! It's crazy! 

The week was pretty good. We got the usual "hit me up after the holiday" thing which I hated, and the family wasn't able to come cause the mom got sick. But we will keep trying on them. A lot of people here have been catching the flu bug which is aweful cause it makes it tough to get in to the homes. But we are still working hard. We have a lot set up for Christmas Eve and Christmas so I'm excited for those days. On Christmas we are seeing one of our solid investigators at lunch, then going to Sis Reams (the lady from Carrollton) to eat, then going over to the Bishops house to eat, then going to the Cottrells:) so it will be a good Christmas, I'm excited. But I can't wait to see y'all I'm so excited!

 

 

December 29, 2014....

 

 

Elder Anderson showing off his Christmas present to himself

Christmas dinner, Southern Style!

 

 

 

"Bits & Pieces" from November 2014

November 3, 2014.....

I don't know if you heard, but here in Georgia it has been a frozen tundra! The past 3 days in the morning has been like 30 degrees! And the high is at most 50. With the wind it has been real bad! But we haven't let it stop the work from progressing! But this week was awesome! We taught some amazing lessons. The first one we taught was a former investigator that we found who had been on date before but they just lost contact with her and she was so excited when we came and saw her.  We taught her the plan of salvation because she had some questions and it made so much sense to her and she was really excited and accepted a date to be baptized. Now, we just have to get her work schedule changed so she can come to church. Another guy, who actually used to be a professional golfer let us right into his house and fed us (which never happens!) But he sat us down and said "I'm going to ask you a question and depending on how you answer it will determine whether I'm going to listen to you or not.." ( gotta love some pressure) but he asked about why there were so many races and languages and and why God divided us. Elder Lanier jumped in and gave a great detailed answer about the tower of babel. It was good. Then he looked at me and said do you have something else. And this is why I love being a missionary, cause during the time Lanier was answering I was getting a huge prompting from the spirit to focus on faith. So I said, "it all comes down to faith. We honestly don't really know. All we know is God's ways are higher than our ways and he has a purpose. And all of our messages that we want to share with you come down to faith, and praying to come to know it to be true. We dont want you to take our word for it." And he looked at me and said "that's exactly what I wanted to hear   Now I can listen to you, so share with me your message!" It was so awesome! We had an awesome lesson with him and he's gonna read and we will see him this week! One more cool story, we had a really smart member with us on a team up and we went to see a lady we met a few days earlier and we showed up the same time they did and went in and got to know them a little more. Her boyfriend was there with them and he is so prepared for the gospel. He looks like a thug but is so smart and knows a lot about Jewish and Egyptian history. So while we were sharing our message and the member finds out this guy knows his stuff he just went off on how the Book of Mormon is so key and how it came about and they connected so well but it was such a spiritual lesson because this guy at the end was like "I feel this burning in my chest and it feels so good!" We all started laughing and brought out the scriptures and showed him that that was the spirit testifying that this is true!! It was a very good week with lots of awesome things happening. Oh and during the lesson with them, they have a pet cockatoo, and I taught the whole lesson with it on my shoulder!! haha it was cool. But the Atlanta ward is still crazy, you can always feel the spirit with them!

Josh and his new companion

November 10, 2015...

 

This week was pretty good with a great ending! We found some pretty cool people this week, one of those being Big J. He reminds me so much of Tyrus, its scary. but he said 2 weeks ago that God was leading him out of his old ways ( hustling) and trying to show him a better life and then he said and then ya'll came up and talked to me. God had something to do with it! Sadly he lives in a different ward, but he works in our area so we will be keeping up with him. The great ending was K and her 2 daughters came to church!! They loved it and they stayed all 3 hours and the girls were saying they loved their classes and the kids in there and K had a great time. She said she learned a lot but we had a member pick them up and take them home and after he dropped them off, he called us and said that she is so ready to be baptized! He said that she was saying that she loved the church and wanted the change in her life and knew that this is how she could do it! So we are super excited for them. Oh and I also got to go to the temple which was great. But this is what I am really excited about and I want to let you know what I'll be doing with my studies for basically the rest of my mission or however long it takes mixed in with all the other stuff that I have to study. But you sent that blue journal to me and I wanted to use it as my own personal study/doctrine and covenants where I receive my own revelation But I wasn't using as much as I wanted to but I received revelation a few days ago when I was reading over my favorite talk from the last General Conference, "The Reason for our Hope" by Boyd K Packer. Through the whole talk he bears testimony of the Savior and what he can do in our lives. At the end he talks on how the most important thing in the church and how we know we have "true succes is by the spiritual strength of its individual members" which is so true, but in the beginning of the talk he talks about going to Oxford University to find an ancestors name, but he went back to give the University a set of the Standard Works. and at first he said "they were a little confused not knowing we were really Christians, but before he handed them over he opened the Topical Guide and showed them one subject: 18 pages, very fine print, single spaced, listing references to the the subject of 'Jesus Christ' One of the most Comprehensive compilations of scriptural references that has ever been assembled, a testimony from the old and new testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price."  So I received revelation on what I needed to do. I am gonna go line by line, scripture by scripture, showing all the references and seeing how each book fits perfectly together and seeing that the Church really is the only true and living church on the earth today! I am so stoked! I'm hoping to gain just a pure sound testimony that Jesus Christ is my Savior and the Savior for the entire world! and learn more about his life his teachings and the his atonement. and whats cool and I didn't realize this till yesterday but my Patriarchal Blessing states many times that I need to become learned in the scriptures and to come to know the importance of the Savior Jesus Christ in my life and in the lives of those I will come in contact with and it will prepare me for my future tasks and responsibilities. I think its cool how the Holy Ghost can work to lead you exactly to where you need to be or what you need to be doing at a certain time in your life! but im so excited! 

Elder Anderson & Elder Hansen

 November 17, 2015.....

Sorry for how late this email is but we just had an awesome p-day! We went to midtown and walked around and a member in our ward got us into the Aquarium! It was sweet. A lot of cool stuff  is in there and there is a sweet dolphin show we got to watch as well so it was worth the waiting email. This week was pretty good. It was slow at times cause we had a lot of things going on. They took our car so we are now just on the MARTA and bike.. which isnt bad but it just takes a lot longer. On Tuesday I went on exchanges down to college park and had a great day. We helped a member build a green house and then we did get to see one of our investigators. He is doing great. He's been reading a little bit but we had a great lesson with him again and hopefully we get him to church. K and her kids couldn't make it this week to church because she had to go to work but they are coming next week and we are seeing them again tomorrow. They are awesome and so easy to teach. but on Sunday this week was super cool.  We had a HUGE surprise for sacrament meeting.  Sis. Soares, Sis Kopischke, and Sis. Zwick of whom all of their husbands are in the first quorom of 70!! They all were there and spoke to us! Then President and Sister Harding were both there and spoke. It was soooo sweet and we did have one investigator there and he really enjoyed it! But it was super spiritual and this week we have Elder Kopischke taking a tour of our mission so we have a big conference with him on wednesday. I'm so stoked for that. 

November 24, 2014.....

 

That's great y'all are keeping it traditional and getting together at home! It'll be nice to sit around the dinner table again with the whole family! Such small things that we take for granted every single day. That's been what I'm so grateful for, my Heavenly Father blessing me with such a great family and leading me in the right direction to lead me where I am today without me even knowing it. And for my Savior, Jesus Christ. This study has been awesome so far. It's going by slowly but surely I probably won't finish it till right when I finish the mission, but I couldn't be more grateful for what I have in my life! And yes, you don't have to worry about me getting fed. We are gonna be playing in the turkey bowl in the morning!!! Then we are going to the Hinkles house and then a big surprise, a member in the Carrollton Ward, an older lady named Sis. Reams who is sooo amazing just moved to the Atlanta ward so now we have 2 dinners! Hopefully we get some more this week! haha I finally feel like I can splurge myself cause I'm getting back in shape so I'm happy I can enjoy myself! But Elder Kopischke was awesome!!! We all had so much revelation in those meetings it was crazy! At the start of the meeting he said that it would be a meeting full of revelation and invited every missionary to write down 3 questions they wanted answers to and promised they would get answered! and it was so cool that when you prepare yourself to receive revelation and are listening for the Holy Ghost to give you that answer you will always get it! All of mine were answered. He talked about some amazing stuff that this mission really needed to hear about faith and about Form vs. Power (JS-H 1:19) it was so cool. We were missing Gods power in the work so I cant wait to see where the mission will go now! But the investigators are doing great, sadly no one came to church on Sunday due to the stupid huge rain storm that came in the morning. No one wanted to go outside... and a lot of our people have to take Marta so they didn't come. But its all good, we had great lessons with Kesha and her family and with Royce and we are seeing him again tomorrow night.My new family that we are working with is so sweet!! It's a part member family. They had us over for dinner last Monday. She has been a life long member and he is not a member. They have had 10 kids! and I think half are members. but the husband played in the NFL for a few years for the Falcons but he has been a coach in the NFL for 28 years!!! So sick!! You know me and him connected real well! He was telling me a lot of his stories, one cool DYK(did you know) is when he was the defensive coordinator for the Jets, he has been the only person ever to shut out Peyton Manning in his whole career! He has the game ball and I held it! He still works for the NFL a an appeals officer or something like that. He works with the players who get fined..  The wife's big goal is to get them sealed. They remind me a lot of you and dad. So pray for them.

But I love you so much and miss you. I hope y'all have a great thanksgiving!! Don't miss me too much. and I'm so grateful to be able to call you my family!

 

"Bits & Pieces" from October 2014

October 6, 2014.....

I loved hearing what you thought about conference! It was amazing for sure. But ya, I really
enjoyed that one on the Patriarchal blessing and making sure that our lives are in harmony with the blessing promised to us in the blessing it made me want to be better at studying it and making sure I'm doing everything Heavenly Father wants from me. Elder Bednar's talk was pretty legit telling everyone why we do what we do. It's so true though cause once I felt the atonement in my life and when I focus on what the gospel has done for me in my life that's when I want to share it with everyone else and I think once we realize that nobody can take part of the Atonement without being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority and if we believe that its only in our church where you can find that then how more important it is for us to share that with everyone! But, sadly we didn't have anyone come and watch conference with us but I know we had a part member family that we are now starting to work with watch a session the dad is the only member and they have 5 kids! So we are excited to start working with them more and hopefully getting them to start coming to church. And with Syndi and Durran we have been communicating through text all week. She has been super busy with her work. Her husband does something with the military and he lives in Arizona and I'm pretty sure they are thinking of moving out there next year some time. But she still really wants to talk but doesn't get home till super late so hopefully we'll see them this week! I did get to see Tyrus on Monday! He came down but Anthony was sick so he couldn't come to lunch with us but he took us out to lunch so it was great to see him and get to catch up. He is still doing great and going to church and he is helping the misisonaries out a lot. I was super happy to hear that. And I heard back from Josh Johnson last week. He wrote me and said he is doing great as well and still preparing for his mission! So I'm happy to hear that they are still going strong. I  guess the sisters in Carrollton have been killing it and they have baptized like 5 weeks in a row! I'm happy for my "home" ward! But for the rest of the week, it was pretty good just been hitting it strong with those bikes! We found quite a few new investigators this week and some seem very promising so we are excited to start teaching them. One of them was named Sherrell.  She is kinda crazy but when we were talking to her about the church and what it does for us spiritually she started opening up to us about her past and how she needs to get a stronger relationship with God and actually do what he wants her to do and she had been holding grudges from some things about her daughter and what she had been doing. She hasn't seen or talked to her for 6 months but she said she was going to forgive her and put it behind her and move on and be happy just cause we stopped by and talked to her and prayed with her. So we were happy we made some what of a difference. Then the next day we got a call from her and she said you need to come over now so we headed over there and she was very happy cause that morning her daughter showed up at her door wanting to make things right and to strengthen there relationship! She said it was all because we came and prayed with her. That was our little miracle for the week. But my 2 favorite talks this week were probably Elder Packers and Elder Christofferson. Elder Packers with his pure testimony on the Savior and the atonement were so strong! And how we as individuals need to have a sure foundation of the gospel and gain our own witness of the truthfulness of this message and then we will make the unity strong. And Elder Christofferson talking about our agency and the importance of our choices. I just felt like the theme message of this conference was we need to focus on our own personal conversion and then we need to focus on the family and how important it is to have the priesthood keys restored back onto the earth and to have a Prophet. But I enjoyed it highly. Oh and I get to go to the temple tomorrow cause we are having zone training meeting and the crazy thing is President Harding is doing this new thing where the zone leaders go on week long exchanges with the district leaders and this week is my lucky week...so I'll be with Elder Urchanbrek the whole week! We'll see how that goes. 

The new bike!

 

Elder Anderson's new buddy

 October 13, 2014....

This week was really good the exchange went well.  It was different than what we were both used to so it was hard getting used to it but we got a lot of work done and saw some good things so overall it was good and we survived.  He came to my area, so we got a lot of good things done and got one of our other investigators on date so we are excited about that. But nothing really crazy or new happened this week.  Pretty same old same old stuff.  Last night it was pretty crazy, we had a 2 pipes burst. One in our apartment and the other from the apartment above us and it was like 11:30 so luckily one of the maintenance guys lives below us so we ran and knocked on his door and the guy above us and our apartment got soaked there was water dripping out of lights and vents and the ceiling and we were filling up buckets and had towels going everywhere, hahah it was a blast!! Not really, but we are all alive and we got everything taken care of in about an hour so it was a late night for us last night but it was a fun way to finish the exchange. As for zone conference, it went great. I always love going to the temple with all the missionaries and getting to see everybody. And the cool thing is we got to watch "Meet the Mormons" while we were there so that was good. I thought they did a really good job and I think that will be a great missionary tool. But I don't have too much time this week to write cause we have a lot of things to get done before we exchange back but I love you and miss you so much and I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you next week.

A week of exchanges

 October 20, 2014....

We had a really good week this week and had a lot of success finding new people and as well seeing a lot of our people that we have been teaching.  One of those families being a part member family are doing really well and are progressing. A cool miracle was that one of our investigators; we gave her a Book of Mormon like 3 weeks ago and because she has been out of town we haven't been able to get in contact with her too much but we saw her this week and she had read all the way to 3 Nephi 18!! We were so shocked.  And she loves the Book of Mormon, the only problem will be getting her away from her other church that she loves so much. Its a huge mega church in Atlanta... like 20,000 members.... nuts right?!? But now for the big news... I'm being transfered!!!! Who would have thought. I didn't think I was leaving. I figured Talbot would.  I'm going to the heart of the city!! ATLANTA! I'm stoked. It will be so sick so I'll be on my bike and I'll have Marta(the bus) but it'll be way sick!! and I think I'll be in another 4 man too, which I have loved so I'm stoked for the new experience and the elder I'm going to is actually one of the ones that came in with Elder Hamilton from Sierra Leone! But I'm excited. I was shocked when I heard I was leaving cause I've only been here 2 transfers but I'm ready for another chapter of the mission.

The Fayetteville District

Moving on...to new adventures

October 27, 2014....

 

The city is amazing! Its awesome!  I love it here! But my week has been pretty fun and different than what I'm used to. Every single door that I have knocked into, they're black! Now I don't want to sound racist but its amazing!! I love it. We stay on the west side of Atlanta so I'm not right in mid town but we travel there often so I see it all the time. My area is great. It has a good mixture of all the social classes which is great! We have the low middle and upper. There are some of the biggest houses here! But I have loved it.  There is always someone to talk to and that wants to hear the word. The trick here in the ward is being able to find someone who is self seficiant and will stay active. Because we could find, teach, and baptize all day long if we wanted to but that has already happened and it has ruined the ward. By the way, the ward is amazing! 70% black 30% white! And every time someone says good morning over the pulpit everyone says it back and I hear fast and testimony meeting is legit! But overall the ward has over 1000 members in it!! and only 150 active... So there is a lot of work to be done here, we just need to figure out where our priorities need to be and how to best help the ward and our investigators. But the fun thing is that we white washed into our area. Elder Lanier was serving in a different part of the ward so we are both new to the area. Which I guess isn't new to me, I've done it in every single one of my areas. But its such a good area. We are on a car/ marta and bike share so one day we have the car and the other we are on Marta with our bikes!

Elder Lanier is great. He is from Mackay, Idaho and has been out for 1 year now. The other two in the apartment are Elder Marriott form Arizona, he has been out 2 transfers ahead of me and Elder Hansen from Idaho and he has been out just 1 transfer less than me and they are pretty cool.  Elder Hansen and I get along great. He is super funny. But I love being in a 4 man, they're legit. This week the ward had its fall festival/trunk or treat which was fun. We had one investigator come to that but not church. I think the sickest part of this ward is President Sullivan. He is the Stake President over the Atlanta stake and his home ward is our ward. He is the one in the movie "Meet the Mormons" as "the bishop" he is so cool! We got to talk with him for a long time at the party as well at church so its cool to be in the ward that was in the movie. So if you have seen it or you go and see it that building is ours and where he lives is in my area! That will be fun to say after the mission. But I'm excited to be here. It's gonna be a fun transfer. Oh and another cool thing we have 7 companionships in the ward!!! So there is plenty of work here to be done! 

 

 

 

 

 

"Bits & Pieces" from September 2014

September 1, 2014....

This week was great. We saw some great progress with some of our investigators.  Sadly, none of them made it to church, but they are reading and understanding our message and they want to act on it which is some good progress.  I had a great lesson with a lady named Mimi.  She is an older lady, super sweet, she was in the formers area book and we went and saw her with an older couple in the ward and they hit it off and had an amazing lesson.  She loved and understood the restoration, she is a Sunday school teacher for her church so its gonna be hard to get her to come to our church. But my district is killin it right now which is amazing to see and its great for our ward.  One companionship, the STL's, they are baptizing 4 people this week a family of 3! and a grandpa part of a part member family and they are all amazing people so I'm stoked to be able to interview them and then next week I get to interview another guy who is super solid as well! So, the work is definitely hastening here in Fayetteville! Now I just gotta find those that are prepared as well, but I have loved being around such great missionaries and being able to interview so many people for baptism. It is such an honor and blessing to be able to have that privilege! Yesterday we worked hard all day and tracked for like 5 hours in the super hot humidity to find as many families as possible cause they were home and we found 4 new families. It was awesome.  Found a great place to find in with great people so me and Talbot are stoked.  We just need to keep working hard and following up with people. But the Lord will provide as we just keep working hard and being obedient the blessing will come. I get to go to mission council with all the Leaders tomorrow so I'm excited for that but sorry its short this week not too much to say.

September 8, 2014....

 Thanks for the birthday wishes! It's weird to think I wont be a teenager after Wednesday. It is flying by. Thats sick that Brandon did good, sounds like he and the team did really good. Tell him congrats and no he didnt write me. but this seriously is the hardest time of the year for me as a missionary and not being able to watch any games!! haha its kind of sad but this is what they meant when they say serving a mission is a hard sacrifice.. Only a sacrifice from football season! haha I miss yall too... :)  and I'm glad you enjoyed 2 Nephi 4.  I just love how fast you can change your attitude on anything and he just says "awake my soul" and to stop letting satan control him or his thoughts and that if we can just trust in the Lord forever he will guide us back home. And ya thats the hardest part for me to get through as well I wish Isiah wasnt so hard to read!
This week was really good though we kicked it off strong. Obviously on Monday with it being Labor day, many families were home and kept our finding pretty consistent throughout the week. I think our find of the week was a lady named Kimber we met her on Wednesday and said we could come back the next day and when we first talked with her she said she was agnostic and was confused why there would be so many christian denominations. So I kind of chuckled and said we have the perfect message for you and bore testimony that she really did have a Heavenly Father that loved her so much. So I went back on thursday with Bro Okonkwo.  We were on splits and we taught her family. Her husband is Casey and they have a 7 year old named Garren and being in the south and getting to teach a family who really doesnt believe in God is a blast! I love it. I think its so fun to watch them have a spiritual witness that there is a God and thats what we saw. We taught them the restoration and focused primarily on faith. What faith is and how we apply faith it in our lives. And to someone who really wants proof and can't rely on faith, that's when we need the spirit to testify to them so we said a prayer in the middle of the lesson to let the spirit work in them and progressively through the lesson they kept getting more and more interested and asking more questions and at the end they said that they really wanted to read and pray about the Book of Mormon! And they accepted a soft commitment to be baptized if they came to know it to be true. Then the rest of the week was a little slower for us at least but for the rest of the district it went great so that was good to see.
The interviews went really well. One of them, Bro Ironce Raymond was the grandpa of a part member family. I have never met a man who was more prepared for the gospel than this man! Our interview was like an hour and a half because of how much he was bearing testimony of the gospel and how it has changed his and his family's life! He said he was praying so long for God to send him to the truth and his whole life he thought God didn't answer him and then he realized that God works in mysterious ways and led his family there first and let him find it through them. He and a 3 generation family were baptized as well the grandma,, the mom and her daughter! So it was an awesome Saturday and Sunday to see! and Bro Raymond bore his testimony so many times through church it was so cool. even though he wasn't my investigator, he definitely has changed my life just to be able to see and hear his story. But me and Talbot are just hitting those streets hard and knocking on all the doors we see trying to find that family! We know it will happen in due time with our faith and diligence we'll see a miracle this transfer! My quote of the day "Adversity helps develop a depth of character that comes in no other way." - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Elders Anderson & Talbot

September 15....

 This week was a great week.  We saw some great things happen and some bad, but thats the fun in missionary work. My birthday was great, we had a lot of fun.  We went out that night and went to a place called Twisted Taco! A place right in the square of Fayetteville and I did love the package and I will keep the bracelet close so I can where it when I come home. I like the turtles thing we got going as a Fam. But that day was a good day for me, everybody that we talked to shut us down haha we had very little success which is fine.  It happens and honestly it strengthens my testimony more when we have so many people wanting to yell and get angry with us cause it just makes them look dumb for one, and it shows how sad "Christianity" has become. We knocked into 2 different pastors that day that got so mad that we were on their porch and tried to anti us and said we don't believe in Jesus and all the good stuff that they try and throw at us.  We had one go open his door and when I started talking he leaned over with his finger pushed on my name tag and said "that says Jesus Christ.. you need to take that off now cause you dont believe in Jesus.." and then went off how Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon is crap.. and is all fake. Now.. this was an older man but me being me, it took everything not to punch him in the mouth for hitting my name tag. But I love these experiences cause all you have to say is "Sir, have you read the book?" they say "no, who would read the devils book.."" well if you're too ignorant to read the book and pray about it, you cant say anything about my church.  Try it out and you'll see something like this could not come from the devil!" and it's just sad how all these people call themselves Christians and they put everyone else down for what they believe.. I'm pretty sure Christ wouldn't do that. It's just a small testimony builder for me knowing that we don't put down any other faith for what they believe, we just offer more. But I did get to interview another man this week for baptism. He is so strong in the gospel. He has been learning for awhile now and finally made the first step so it was great to see. We had zone conference which was great. Elder Jensen just got transfered into the zone so it was great to see him again.  I found out someone we started teaching and got halfway through when I left got baptized 2 weeks ago so that was great news!
That's awesome you got to speak in church this week and ya that is definitely something harming the world today with the youth we don't see things as black and white. The youth like to sit on the fence in the gray area and see what they can do to not harm themselves which is so sad. It just gives satan so much more ability to snatch them when they waver just a little bit. We see it out here in the mission field with other missionaries which sucks but I guess with the Lords work hastening Satan is making it even harder to find our way in this world. We have been talking about that lately in our mission. Our own personal conversion. That is what I am most grateful for in serving a mission, to actually know for myself that this church is true. I dont think I knew that before and I honestly think if any young man who doesn't know that and comes on his mission and can find that for himself and maybe not convert anyone else on the way but if he saved himself it was all worth it. Because later in life he will have a family and he will raise his kids in the gospel and thats how generations will change.  So I've just been thinking lately of what my life would have been if I didnt serve and it scares me what could have happened. Im so happy that I've converted myself.

Celebrating "20" with a little confetti blast

September 22, 2014....

 Hey, I loved that scripture that you sent.  It meant a lot coming from someone else cause I just read that chapter this week and that didn't stick out to me... shows you how much I try to understand Isiah:) The zone conference was at the Fayetteville stake was so amazing.  All the relief societies in each ward for like 4 months were compiling a bunch of stuff from everyone and they had a missionary mall for all us missionaries serving in the Fayetteville zones! So we basically just got a bunch of free stuff! and there was so much stuff... your son was in heaven. It was like being at the DI but everything was free and nicer! So I picked up a new suit, 2 rain/cold jackets a bunch of ties and a bunch of hygiene stuff! It was awesome.
But about the week, this week was a lot better than last week! We had some pretty awesome miracles in finding families! One of these families was a mom and a daughter and 5 years ago they moved to Georgia but before they lived in New Jersey and met and learned from missionaries and they loved them. They called them the "Jesus Boys". And when they moved they told the missionaries to make sure ones in Georgia came and saw them and when they first got hear some came but they weren't home and only left a pass along card with no contact info. Then 5 years went by and none have knocked on her door since!  So when we knocked on her door she freaked out.. which made us super nervous cause at first it looked like she was going to attack us, but then she was so happy and started bringing up things like the Book of Mormon and Moroni and that she went to the Washington DC temple to check out the visitors center! We were shocked, she then set up her own return appt. and made sure we were coming back! So we are stoked to go back and teach them and get them coming to church! Our other miracle is that we got one of our investigators who lives in our same apt. complex on date to be baptized for October 25th! He is super excited. We just need to help him with his word of wisdom issues and he will be baptized! Elder Talbot and I were happy to see success this week with a few of our investigators and hopefully this week we will have a lot coming to church! and who isn't so excited for General Conference!!! 2 more weeks!! It'll be awesome!
 

A little P-day Golfing

 

Ran into Dad's old mission companion, Elder Handekamp

September 29, 2014....

So it was a really good week this week, we got a lot of stuff done. We finally got some people to church! Our investigator, who is on date came with his 2 little girls and he enjoyed it a lot and then we got a part member family that we have been working with for awhile now to come! The member has been coming for 3 weeks now.  He is like 70 and on Sunday he received the Aaronic Priesthood so that was awesome to be apart of.  Then his Daughter came who we are teaching and she brought her little boy who we will be giving a baby blessing to in the next few weeks. But there is a lot of potential in that family so we are excited for them.
I think the big miracle this week is we finally got back in contact with one of our investigators who was on date before but fell off the map because he had a lot going on but we went and visited him on Friday. We were talking more about what we do and he said that he found out that we cant watch TV or listen to music and can't talk to our families and he said there was no way he could do that. We asked him where he found that out and he said he was in Carrollton over the weekend and met the missionaries out there because he was taking them to get some shoes.  So we asked him why he was taking missionaries to get shoes and he said he wasn't but his really good friend was and he was just staying with him over the weekend. I got super excited and asked who the friend was and he said, Tyrus!! I was like NO WAY!! I baptized Tyrus! and showed him the pics on my camera so we were both shocked and then he called up tyrus and we set up a time this week to teach Anthony with Tyrus!! But how cool is that! What a small world it is.  But I'm pretty stoked for that. It was just a great week for us in finding new families to listen to us so hopefully we can be teaching more people this week and see many families coming to General Conference to hear the Prophets voice! We weren't able to see Cindy and her daughter this week cause they had to run out to Arizona to see her husband but we are seeing them this week and they are coming to conference! and Conference will be amazing its like Christmas for us missionaries! I can't wait to see what Holland throws down  this time!