Monday, March 28, 2011

The Latest from the Dalles

"Another week and another transfer has past here in The Dalles zone and another transfer has come and gone for me.  Wow i have been out 4 transfers already and i have had 3 companions and served in 2 different areas.  I can't believe that i have had the opportunity to see all these wonderful people and be able to serve the lord out in such a beautiful place.  Yesterday i was able to find out if i was going to be transferred to a different area and have a new companion and i was pretty nervous about leaving my area and getting a new companion.  But this transfer call was a really good call.  Neither Elder Hobbs or i am getting transfered or my other favorite companionship  that is here in the dalles.  So as of transfers there pretty much was nothing.  Everything stayed the same except for two people in our entire zone haha.  So i am pretty stoked for this next transfer.
Today we are going golfing for free and i'm so excited.  We will be going with another companionship in the dalles that we are really close to and we have a blast together so we will have so much fun.  But also we will be with an investigator of ours named JR Walker.  He is 14 years old and he is a stud.  He is so really cool and wants to be baptized so bad.  But his mom won't let him until he reads the entire bible and the b.o.m. and prove that he truly wants to be bapitzed and its not just his grandparents that are helping him be baptized into the church.  So that is kind of sad but i am excited to go play golf with him cause i know it will just make our relationship with him grow even closer.   The work here in the past two weeks has been really quite slow.  It hasn't been all that fun.  We have had investigator after investigator drop us and tell us to not come back so much recently.  We even had a gator (investigator) that was looking forward to baptism and even said she would be baptized leave a note on her door and tell us that she didn't want us to come back and she wanted us to delete her phone number from our phone.  We were pretty heart  broken when these things happened cause these types of things have been happening the last few weeks and its starting to weigh on our minds.  But we are trying to look on the positive side and to keep the work progressing."

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Dalles

Elder Anderson's e-mails have been kind of short since he settled into his newest area.  But today we got a great e-mail focusing on prayer.

"Six months have come and gone and i don't know where the time went.  Its been crazy how fast the mission picks up once you get the hang of it.  But i still am in awe over the fact that 6 months have already past and that i have finished 1/4 of my mission already.  (but at the same time i don't even remember home so it feels like 6 months).   And one of the best things is that i am in one of my favorite districts that i have been in my entire mission.  We are in the Dalles district and it has  6 missionaries in it.  But mostly just 4.  The entire dalles has 4 missionaries and i am one of them.  So that leaves 3 others that we get to mingle with all the time and get to know.  They are Elder Hobbs, my companion from mount vernon Texas, Elder Fenn from Benson Arizona,  And Elder Roundy from Las Vegas Nevada.   They are truly like my brothers and i treat them as such.  Though at times i want to kick there butts and i end up doing so because i'm bigger and stronger them all of them we have a wonderful time together.  We are truly in love with this work and we would do nothing else but look to serve and help those that are in need.   I can say thus far that these 3 missionaries are my favorites as of yet. 

   This last week was a long week due to the fact that p-day was on thursday and it took so long to get here.  But it was a very good weekend.  On tuesday night i was asked to give a talk in church on the 13th and he asked me to talk on the power of prayer and how it relates to missionary work.  Well as you know from previous letters that prayer is truly one of my biggest strong points in the mission and i was really really excited to give a talk.  I ended up giving a really long talk and when i had no more time left i was sad because i had so much more to say. But i would like to share a few little key things on prayer and how it is so important in our lives.  First off my life has been changed by prayer.  I don't think i would have gone on a mission if prayer wasn't there.  Prayer is the way we get answers about questions and eternal truths.  Prayer is what started this whole last dispensation here on the earth today.  JUST BY ONE PRAYER.  And now we are led by a prophet here on the earth today because of it.   But the most true and dear thing to me about prayer that i would like you to realize is that it is truly something we need to do all the time.  It says in 2 Ne 32:9 that we are to consecrate our lives in prayer in everything we do.  Our lord and savior Jesus Christ went into the garden of Gethsemane and before he started any of his work he knelt down and said a prayer to his father.   Our savior and redeemer started this great atonement in a prayer.  And i would just like to emphasize how important prayer truly is and how we need to continue to prayer to our father in everything we do.  (if you have time anyone please check out the Bible Dictionary on prayer its a great thing to study). "


Wow! 

Monday, March 7, 2011

What a beautiful place!

Elder Ben's sweet girlfriend, Britni, got some pictures from him and shared them with us.  What a beautiful place Elder Ben is serving in...
We're not sure which river it is, but we think it's probably very cold!  This was probably taken in January!
Yes, it looks like he's wearing some sort of fedora!  Mighty fine, Elder!
Elder Anderson's family always makes gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve.  We think this must be a sorta kinda gingerbread house!



It looks like Elder Anderson is goofing off.  I wonder how the Lutherans felt about it!

Here is an excerpt from the questions and answers e-mail we got recently:

1.Is that the correct address?  I think that is the correct address but i don't know for sure.  I did get a package from you that had cloths in it and i really apprceated those cloths i will be wearing them today hopefuly. :D
2.Did you get the box I sent there?  What did you like best?    I liked the cloths alot.  Plus the money wasn't to bad ;)\
3.Did things fit?  I don't know but i'm guessing they do.  Hopefully they do!! :D
4.Is this new area drier or as wet as Vancouver?  Is it pretty?  What does it look like?  It is alot drier.  It would have to be in my opinion a mix between utah and washington in green wise. But also it has alot of cliffs and things that are different.
5.What do you think about your mission president?  You've met with him at least three times but you haven't really given us your impressions of him.  He is a really good man.  He truly is a spiritual giant.  I don't know very much about him or my impressions about him cause i truly just don't have one. Its like looking at the prophet. But just he isn't as powerful haha.
6.Does your companion go work with other missionaries in your district sometimes?   Yes he does.  I already did splits with the zone leaders last weekend and this wed i am going to a tiny little town called goldendale with a different man from nevada.
7.When are you going to send back your MTC daily calendar that you said you'd send to us so we could see what your days were like there.  I just keep forgetting.  I just have to get myself to the post office here to get a bigger envelope.  And also i have kept all of my planners cause i number them and i want to remember what i did that transfer.
8.Have you seen anyone (elder or sister) from our area while you've been out there? (Janae Webber from LP and Cedar Hills is there and at least one other guy from LP I think)  Yes there are a few other people i have ran into from lp over the last few months.  I have ran into elder tyler peterson from alpine ut and he graduated a year before me.  Also elder cody mack from cedar hills.  He graduated the same year as i did.  But also a kid named jason richey.  He got here last transfer.
9.What's the family like that you live with?  They are a really cool family.  He owns a contracting company and he also is a huge hunter.  I think it would be intresting to some time call over there and talk to them and ask them about contracting and stuff.  And there name is bro and sis wolf.
10.What was the transfer day like?  Did you have a meeting before you got in vans to drive to The Dalles? It was a good transfer we just all meet at the same place and have a little prayer get in the vans and drive haha.  So it wasn't anything to special.  It was just a fun little experience.