The Power of Prayer

Elder Anderson, although feeling very mortal from getting rained on all the time in Vancouver, WA, has been having some awesome spiritual experiences which make the mortal, earthly trials a bit more palatable.  Well, a lot more palatable!  Here is an example from his e-mail this week:

"Our testimony of prayer become even bigger and makes us even more excited to do mission work over here in the evergreen ward.. . On Thursday night we were planning for the next day and we started out by saying a prayer like we are supposed to.  Elder Dixon decided to offer the prayer and he started out saying a normal prayer that didn't touch me at any part until on little part where both of us kinda were a little surprised about what he said.  In his prayer he said something to the effect of,  "please help us answer somebody's prayers tomorrow."   Well we both didn't say anything about it but we did notice it in the prayer and decided to finish the day by writing in our journals and going to bed.   In the morning nothing was different.  But that last night we had planned on going up to the north part of our area to see a family we had never seen before.  And it is in the middle of no where.  Really far away and I didn't want to bike over there at all.   The streets were really busy, we almost got hit a couple times by cars, there are no side walks, no bike paths and there is a swamp and river on the side of us so we either fall into that or we get hit by a car.  I continued to just keep peddling at my own speed and trying to get there as fast as I could.  I was pretty tired and sweaty by the time we got to the area. . .   We then proceeded to go to the house that we had planned on seeing.  The house wasn't far away but when we got there nobody answered the door.  We where pretty bummed about that. But we continued onward and went to a less active's house and knew that she should be home for us to at least visit with her. We then arrived and found out that she as well wasn't home and that we were pretty much done with our time up there and wasted all of that effort and scary biking for nothing.  We then started towards the street when I felt like we should stop and go back to a house in a circle that had a man that was dis-fellowshipped from the church a few years back.  We decided to stop there and see if the man was home.  We knocked on the door and nobody answered. So we rang the door bell and it seemed like nobody was home. But we sat there a little bit longer than normal just because, and all of the sudden the door opened and the man we were trying to see was standing there at the door and welcoming us in.  His name is Joel and he is a sailor and he is a very tough man who you can tell you don't want to mess with.  We then sat down and we started to talk to him about things we noticed and starting up a conversation when he all of a sudden he said.  "I'm glad you men came over.  I got up this morning and said a prayer for somebody to help me and give me a priesthood blessing".  Not even  thinking about what I was going to say my mouth opened and I said something that was completely his own business.  I asked. "Why do you need a blessing, Joel"?   He then stopped and choked up.  He told us that this morning he got up and was drunk.  He had been drinking since he was 13 and wants to stop.  He is now 29 and has lost every contact he had from the church.  He needs to stop and he prayed for the Lord to help him that very day and have somebody help him with the things he was messing up with.  He told us that he wanted to come back to church.  That he is getting a new job that allows him to go back to church in a few weeks and that he is planning on quitting drinking but he needed some help from someone and a blessing.  And who was there on that very day at the very morning in that very area?  Us, the missionaries the very people that want to help him and will do anything to help him.  We told him that we were going to always be there for him and he asked me to give him a blessing.  We did so and left and told him that the Lord has given him a clean slate.  He has the chance to change his life right now and he has the opportunity to. 

 

Prayer is one of the most powerful tools that the Lord has given us. . .we are to use it and the Lord will bless us through prayer.  This young man will now be going back to church and will be a wonderful example for others.  I know that Heavenly Father listens and answers prayers, and that he always will.  I know that it works and that he loves us.  I love you all as well and hope you pray for others and for yourself. 

 

I hope all goes well this week. I will continue to pray for you and for the work."

WOW is Right!

Elder Anderson stayed in Vancouver on the last transfer and his new companion is a roomie from the MTC, that he really likes.  Here is the latest, and keep in mind that Ben thinks he is still texting because he rarely capitalizes anything!

"So this last week has been one of the funnest and hardest weeks i have ever had since i have been out as a missionary.  I would like to see how the rest of 2011 will be. Full of huge ups and some downs where i will be having a hard time. But i would like to focus on what was really good and fun due to the fact there is nothing we can do about the bad.    First off elder dixon from the MTC is now my companion and i got an e-mail from president saying that he expects great things out of us in this area and that he wants us to be ready to train new missionaries soon. HAHA.  Wow i couldn't believe that out of 240 missionaries president writes me personaly and says that he wants us to be ready to train when i have only been out 4 months.  WOW.  So that was a real shocker and i know that i can do it is the really scary thing.  Elder dixon and i are all about work now and are doing alot of it.  We are doing alot of street contacting and are pretty much sharing the gospel with everybody we meet.  Which actually brought us one or the most crazy experience i have ever had in my life.

" Thursday (the first full day together) its 10 am and we have just left the house to go see a less active member when we are walking down the street and we come across a sister that is about 20 years old and is walking home in the 20 degree weather and is kind of in a rush.  Normally with elder morgan, we would see that she is busy and keep on going on cause we also were in a rush to a less active's house.  But elder dixon proceeded to stop and talk to this young lady. And as we did so we shared our testimonies about the church and how the gospel has been restored to the earth.  She then said she would like a book of mormon and she would like us to return to her house on sunday around 3 o clock and tell her more.  Let me tell you somthing,during the last 3 months when we have talked to people all of them have said no and don't want to talk to you. But this one time where i didn't want to talk and was in a rush we stopped and she wanted to hear a message from us.  WOW we would have missed  her and we wouldn't have helped her at all. But i would like to also share what happened after this experience.  Sunday came around and we were on our way to this house.  Elder dixon was sick and didn't really want to go cause he truly looked like crap.  But we got there and when we knocked on the door another sister answered.  I began to talk to her and share that we are mormon missionaries and that we were here to share a message to sarah that we had talked to on the street. She then ran outside and started to interogate us about what we were doing.  We then asked if sarah was home and she replied she isn't she is at work. We then asked if it would be alright if we could share a message with her about the restored gospel and if she had some time. She then replied yes and said go ahead and teach me.  As i started to say a few words she yelled out stop.  I was kind of taken by sutprise and was expecting some anti thoughts from her mouth. But she didn't say anything of that sort. She said let me share you an experience. She said she was 18 and that her parents just kicked her out of her house. She was living with her friend and she had no wjere to go. Her family said they were christian and yet they just hung her out to dry.  She then started to tear up when we replied that we are gods children and that he loves us.  We shared a message with her and she was almost in tears of joy when she said i am very happy that you fellows stopped by and i too would like a book of mormon.   I then realized how if i wouldn't have opened my mouth on that cold winter day to a rushing sister that looked somewhat annoyed that i wouldn't have found this women looking for the truth.  We have a return appointment with her. But that isn't the reason why this is so important.  Through opening our mouths we have found a sister that wanted the truth and that needed it.  And i have gained a testimony of that even more now that this experience has happened.

"  NEXT EXPERIENCE.  On new years day we had been walking about 8 miles and we were really really tired. HAHA we had really had no success but we were having a great time talking and sharing the gospel with the people we have met on the street.  We then started to tred on home when we came across a lady that looked asian and we then got excited to be able to talk  to her and share a message about the gospel with her.  We got close to her and waved and stopped to share a message. She then got really excited and began to talk in very very very broken english. We could only understand one or two words in a few sentences.  Then she proceeded to take us to her house.  We realized this would be a great opportunity to share a message with her and agreed to do so.  We then got into the house and she was going crazy.  She pulled out two pounds of cashews and put them on my lap and told me to eat them. She then got out grape juice and told me to open it and pour it into our glasses. She then stated that the wine was HIS body. And i was kinda freaked out by that . She then proceeded to try and turn on a lamp that wouldn't work.  As she was doing so she cried out many times jesus jesus o help me jesus.  She did so for about 2 minutes or so and the lamp eventually turned on but it was really funny her reaction.  She then proceeded to give us fruitcake, chocolates, fruit candy, and dorito's.  She was insane. She pulled out a knife and even started waving it around and then opened up the cake and candies.  I truly thought i as going to die.  When then realized that this lady was just a little crazy and that we needed to get out of there. We proceeded to slowly get up when she yelled STOP. YOU Sit down. and pushed me down. O wow.  I was laughing so hard but really really scared at the same time.  Elder dixon then shared a message and we got up and slowly started to go outside when she then proceeded to cry and tell us not to leave and to even start yelling at us. Elder dixon then just said we got to go and started walking out. She then said lets just say a prayer. When then said one and i didn't understand any of it. We said goodbye ran down the stairs and ran about 3 blocks to get away from this crazy lady.  I wish i could truly explain what happened better. Maybe next time i will have to explain it in more detail. But i hope you know it was fun."

Responsibility for the New Year

The most recent e-mail from Elder Anderson has some exciting news!

 

Here is the exact quote:

 

"Welcome to the new year (almost).  This week has been very fun and intresting.  I'll first start with transfers and how that kinda went crazy for a couple of days.  So on christmas i told everybody we are getting phone calls weather or not we get transferd and we would find out that night if we were or not. Well around 6 pm on christmas night we got a voicemail and we were pretty excited about the news and if anybody was going to be transfered. Well the message was from the ap's and it was talking about transfers but problem was they said that we weren't going to find out until monday night and that we have to wait for the news.  How lame is that :(  i had to wait for another 2 days jsut thinking about if elder morgan and i are getting split up and who my companion will be and what area we will be shipped off to war in.    Well with a long but very exciting two days that went by monday arrived and we got a few voicemails saying a few things that we were quite excited about.  We found out that with the phone call with transfers we will not just find out if we are getting transfereed but we will find out were we are going and who our companion is.  THE WHOLE 9 Yards.  So we were pretty excited. And thinking that elder morgan was district leader and that he was getting so much attention from the mission president i was like 85% sure i was leaving so on monday morning i actualy started to clean up around the house and get my stuff reall organized for the long pack for me being transfered.  But as i was doing that we got  a voicemail!!  It was transfers and there were some dramatic changes that were being made with this area.  We found out some really intresting things in those quick 3 mins.  Elder morgan is getting transfered i am staying in the evergreen ward but elder morgan is just literally going to the ward right next to me and our ward boundries are 100 yards from the house i am staying at. Also i am getting a new companion of course and i know who it is. YOu all do. HAHA he was in the mtc with me he is elder dixon and he previously served in pasco, WA and got sent over here with me.  I have alot of pressure on my shoulders now. President knows i can handle things well and he is putting me in charge of the entire area with two missionarys that don't even have more then 6 months experience together total. So i can feel the pressure but i can just feel the excitment and the anticipation for this transfer cause i know it will be a very fun one and it will be amazing!!!  

 

Christmas was last week as everybody knows and i was able to talk to everybody!! :D  I appreciate all of the time you guys gave me for being able to talk to you and i appreciate you maybe missing some of your time with other familys to have the chance to talk to me. It means alot. Also thank you for the presents that so many of you sent and thank you for the christmas cards. It means alot ot have the family/ friends care about me.  Thank you expecially to Britni, mom & dad, And jake and amber for this christmas and all of there efforts they put in for making it one of the best christmas's i could ever ask for. 

 

And so to the family i am still in my area for at least another 6 weeks so that means go ahead and keep on sending your letters directly to the house if you feel like it and a reminder to amy that she needs to send the 3 letters that she has already addressed and stamped so i can hear how she is doing and how my wonderful hooligans of necies and nephews are going.  

 

Thank you all for all that you do and thank you for a wonderful christmas."

The BEST Christmas OoVoo Ever

A bit of explanation after telling all who read this "Merry Christmas!"

There is a program sort of like Skype where you can video conference called OoVoo.  OoVoo is a program on the computers of the members where Elder Anderson is staying in Vancouver so we put it on our computer, too.  With ooVoo you can video conference more than two computers, so yesterday when Elder Anderson called home, most everyone was at his home, but one family was away but were able to participate anyway.  It was such a great present to see Ben.  He is supremely happy and even complained once that he was smiling so much his cheeks hurt!
Here are a couple of pictures of the family gathered around the laptop.

 He called at about 10 AM on Christmas Day.  Some of the siblings were already here, others weren't.  Britni was here all ready to go!  Ben's parents got to speak for a couple of minutes first and then each family got 3 or 4 minutes. 

 Even Shadow got a turn.  She heard his voice but couldn't figure out where he was!  It was so cute with her ears perking up and her head twisting from side to side!  Elder Anderson enjoyed this immensely!

 You can see Elder Anderson on the left and his sister and brother-in-law on the right.

Britni got her specially made by Ben crocheted scarf while she was talking to him.  She loved it.  Elder Anderson said that he spent his time between 9:30 and 10 PM many nights making the scarf!

Ben seems sincerely happy and his family misses him immensely but we are so glad he is doing such a good job!

Pictures - a Great Christmas Gift!

Last week , as I was leaving a store, someone called my cell phone.  She asked for "Sister Anderson" and I replied that was me.  She said she was a member of Elder Anderson's ward in the Evergreen Stake in Vancouver, Washington and that she was having the elders over for dinner that night.  She wanted to know what sort of food he liked to eat (I told her he'd eat just about anything) and she then proceeded to tell me that Ben and his companion were really good missionaries.  She said she wouldn't call his parents if he were a mediocre missionary like some of them were!  She also said that they seem to get along great and work well together.  Ben had previously said that they love each other like brothers and that they fight like brothers, too haha.  (He always adds those "hahas" just like he were texting on his phone!.  The best thing she said was that 98% of the time she can tell who the new missionary was but with Ben she most certainly could not!  She said he just doesn't seem new.  That was great news to Elder Anderson's family!

We were then so excited on Saturday when we found an envelope in our mailbox with a return address of Vancouver, Washington!  It had been over a month since we had gotten something like that in our mail.  Inside was an SD card of pictures including a guided tour of Elder Anderson's place.  Here's how great he looks!

He said that this was the first snow Vancouver had had in two years and everyone there was so excited!  You can still write him a Merry Christmas card and send it if you do it soon!

No sugar at Christmas? That IS a miracle!

Elder Ben seems to be doing good in Vancouver, Washington.  He says that the weather is better in December than it was in October and November, less rainy.  He says he is NOT missing the rain!  

(Note - Ben types like he texts!  His mother has been fixing the lower case i's and turning them into I's and fixing the words that aren't capitalized, but she's tired of doing that.  So partway through this blog, Ben's mom quit fixing some of his misspellings!) 

Here are some more comments:

1. "The holiday season is finally here and I am getting into the spirit of Christmas.  I have been listening to Christmas songs and have been singing along and loving it. But as a sister of mine had said she missed the Christmas songs that home played. Well I'll admit it. I am missing Christmas music alot."  He asked for The Forgotten Carols and his big brother, Jake and big sister Amy, found it an alot of other Christmas CD's and over-nighted them to him!  We're sure he'll be so happy because as he says in the next comment -
2. I'd love to have that CD and "preferably before [Christmas] so I don't have to listen to it just on Christmas day and then put it away for a year haha."
3. "Congratulations for a certain little somebody that isn't so little anymore and that has now been accepted into the fold.  Little Isabel. . . has been baptized as of Dec 4th and i would like to say to her how proud i am of her and i wish i could have been there but i am helping others do the exact same thing that she did and it is very important. I am so proud of her and want to tell her that her favorite uncle is out here supporting her." 
4. Last but not least i would like to brag about myself haha.  I want to tell you all that i have officially been on i would like to say a sugar diet for about a month and a half now. My companion and i are not allowed to eat sugar unless it is desert at a members after dinner because that would be rude if we didn't take it ;) .  But i am proud of myself. And would like to put out there that i have lost 10 lbs sense i have left the MTC and i am planning on losing another 10 before christmas.  I hope so. And with hope anything can be possible.

 What an example - dieting at Christmas time!  Wow! 

Elder Ben asks for all who are reading his e-mails or this blog, to send him your questions so he can let us know things we are interested in.  Here is his address again.  The next transfers take place after Christmas.

Elder Benjamin Anderson

14006 NE 45th St

Vancouver, WA 98682

Temples, Car Accidents and Grey Days

We waited and waited for e-mail to come on Tuesday this week, but it came later in the day than usual. Why?  Because the missionaries were able to go the the Portland Temple.  He spent Thanksgiving at the bishop's house.
Here are some excerpts from Elder Ben's last e-mail:

1. While in Portland, they got to some famous places for a few minutes.
2.  Also "I was able to see my first car accident right in front of me today on the freeway. I now agree with some other people that I really do not like to drive in the pouring rain."
3.  "It's starting to get really grey here all the time and the sun sets by around 4 PM and rises around 7 AM so I am starting to miss the vitamin D. 
4.  We also got some bad news for the family and friends back home :(  Andon has not quit smoking as of now and so we have to postpone his baptism and set a goal to have it on Britni's birthday :D.. But I'm also scared because by then I could be out of the area and I won't be able to see him get baptised if I leave. But I know I was lucky enough to see him and help him progress.