Elder Anderson is starting to really embrace the purpose of his time in Washington. Here are some excerpts from his last e-mail to his family:
" I can't put my finger on what was so specificaly fun [about this week] or why I enjoyed it so much. But I do think it is just me knowing I am doing what is right and I am doing the savior's work. I know that what I am doing is true and I know that I am truly blessed for it. I am in love with doing this work and I will never forsake it. I hope that all of you know of the truthfullness of this as well as I do and that you never forsake it. This is the only true and living gospel. Jesus Christ is my brother and my personel redeemer. He bled for every one of us and he knows the pains and the joys I have gone trhough. He is the life and light of the world and he lives. He still lives!! He will come to this earth again. And I will be able to feel those nail holes in his hands and in his feet and I hope and pray and will continue with all my heart that I will be able to look him in the eye and say I have done my best. I have given 100% and I am worthy to enter into that kingdom with him and with my heavenly father. And I know that even if.. Even if. I am not able to enter into that kingdom of heaven with my lord and savior He will open his arms and welcome me. He will embrace me and we will weep together for joy and for our fellow brothers and sisters.
I am so very happy for this gospel and for what it has done for me and what it will do for me in the future. I miss my family. I miss my friends. But I will never give this up. This work is far more important. I forgot my planner so I don't have the scripture down right now. But I think it is in D&C 88 where it says "when you are in the service of your fellowmen... you are only in the service of your God"!!! WOW. I am in the service of my God. I am so grateful to be able to do this and follow his church. I love the people here. (Even though sometimes they ditch us and leave us out to get soaked when they don't answer the door when we have appointments). But they are all wonderful and I pray for them with much sincerity every night."
There were no specific mentions of his investigators or funny stories, but his family thinks that this might just be the best e-mail he's sent yet!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Elder Anderson and the Micronesian
According to Elder Benj,
"This week has been wonderful. We have had some new investigators and we have met some very determined people that want to hear about the gospel. We committed somebody to baptism yesterday. YAY!!! He is planning on being baptized on Dec. 4th. He is from Micronesia. He is about 34 years old and loves the spirit and knows that we are sent here for a special reason. He is very loving and has that islander personality. He is very funny, laughs alot and always is smiling. He always gives us so much food and makes sure that we finish it all and always keeps us satisfied. This week we had papaya and turkey tail. HAHA. TURKEY TAIL. It was wierd but amazingly really good. ;) He is getting married on Nov 4th and we are so excited for him."
And even though we sent him more ties, "Does anybody have any polyester ties? All my silk ones are getting wet and actualy are starting to get ruined so I am only trying to wear the crappy ones :( . Hopefully you have good looking polyester ties if anybody feels charitable enough to help me out :D."
His parents love that he sent a scripture for us to read and consider - ALMA 34: 28-29,32. He says, "This scripture is very important to me and I really think this is how we should be. So please read it with your families or just in private and if possible send your response on what you think about it to me before next week."
"This week has been wonderful. We have had some new investigators and we have met some very determined people that want to hear about the gospel. We committed somebody to baptism yesterday. YAY!!! He is planning on being baptized on Dec. 4th. He is from Micronesia. He is about 34 years old and loves the spirit and knows that we are sent here for a special reason. He is very loving and has that islander personality. He is very funny, laughs alot and always is smiling. He always gives us so much food and makes sure that we finish it all and always keeps us satisfied. This week we had papaya and turkey tail. HAHA. TURKEY TAIL. It was wierd but amazingly really good. ;) He is getting married on Nov 4th and we are so excited for him."
And even though we sent him more ties, "Does anybody have any polyester ties? All my silk ones are getting wet and actualy are starting to get ruined so I am only trying to wear the crappy ones :( . Hopefully you have good looking polyester ties if anybody feels charitable enough to help me out :D."
His parents love that he sent a scripture for us to read and consider - ALMA 34: 28-29,32. He says, "This scripture is very important to me and I really think this is how we should be. So please read it with your families or just in private and if possible send your response on what you think about it to me before next week."
Funny story for the week -
"This week as we were standing on the curb waiting for one of our members to pick us up for dinner we were talking as cars were zooming by. There was a Scion that drove by that had blaring music. The driver and passenger inside were around 25 and had full on facial hair. These men were head bobbing to their music. We thought nothing of it. But as they went by a second time I started to laugh cause of something I remembered at home. These two men looked like the hamsters on the commercial where they are listening to music and head bobbing to it in there car. We laughed so hard. So if you get the chance look that up on youtube or something and then you will know what I saw this week haha"
"The rainy season has started. There should be no sun coming through the clouds now for supposedly 90 days. So that will be interesting. The roads are always wet here so if anybody is scared of the rain ;) they might not want to live up here."
Elder Anderson's family is so proud of his dedication and so thrilled that he is helping to bless people's lives. He has three more weeks before he could be transferred, so if you're sending ties, be sure to do it soon!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Love, love, love Tuesdays!
Elder Ben has done a good job so far of sending his family an e-mail on Tuesdays, his preparation day. Today he wrote a long one with lots of newsie news.
It was his second "p-day" in the mission field and he says he loves teaching the gospel. Yesterday he taught an investigator from Micronesia whom he describes as "very, very nice" who feeds them lots of food including 2 plates of rice with "good stuff to put top of it. (i guess it was papaya and beef)." He called it "really different," but so good that he didn't have dinner at the member's house that night.
His routine includes"getting up at 6:30 every morning. Just like normal and doing some excerises and making myself some breakfast. Then getting ready. At 8 i have personal study and kinda recharge my knowledge for the day. at 9 we go into comapnionship study and start to go through the lessons we have planned for the day and plan a lesson for them. At 10 we go out and start tracting or go to an appointment. We really don't enjoy early morning tracting everybody is waking up and is mean. HAHA. at 12 we have lunch and we make that back at the house. Just simple things like pb&J or top roman or anything nice and easy. After that we go back out to our appointments or tract tell 5. At 5 or 5:30 we go have dinner with members. We have dinner planned for us at a members house every night. It is very fun. HAHA. We always have desert and a huge meal cause of course it is a really big deal that the missionarys are over."
They present a message they prepared for the family and ask them to pray for them and other missionaries around the world. He says that they are so full that they "can't walk cause they fed us so much" and so the members drive them home! They get ready to go out tracting or to go on an exchanges at 7. Exchanges are when each missionary goes out with a different member of the ward and they enjoy this a lot.
"And we go tell around 8:30 or 9 depending on if we are at an appointment or not. People just don't like us knocking on doors around 8:30 at night. I don't understand why ;) . We then go home and plan for the next day. Who we are going to teach or what area we are going to tract."
They get out of the dress clothes they have been in for 13 or more hours and either go get in bed and say companionship prayer or "we play hacky sack and talk to the family that we live with until about 10. "
"And then we hit the sack and pray for our families back home and look at your pictures write in our journals and then dream about all of yall back home. That is my day most every day and i enjoy it alot."
He tells of his first day tracting when they were let into a home by a young Russian girl whose sister ended up coming out into the room they were in twice dressed only in a towel! What a first day of tracting experience!
It was his second "p-day" in the mission field and he says he loves teaching the gospel. Yesterday he taught an investigator from Micronesia whom he describes as "very, very nice" who feeds them lots of food including 2 plates of rice with "good stuff to put top of it. (i guess it was papaya and beef)." He called it "really different," but so good that he didn't have dinner at the member's house that night.
His routine includes"getting up at 6:30 every morning. Just like normal and doing some excerises and making myself some breakfast. Then getting ready. At 8 i have personal study and kinda recharge my knowledge for the day. at 9 we go into comapnionship study and start to go through the lessons we have planned for the day and plan a lesson for them. At 10 we go out and start tracting or go to an appointment. We really don't enjoy early morning tracting everybody is waking up and is mean. HAHA. at 12 we have lunch and we make that back at the house. Just simple things like pb&J or top roman or anything nice and easy. After that we go back out to our appointments or tract tell 5. At 5 or 5:30 we go have dinner with members. We have dinner planned for us at a members house every night. It is very fun. HAHA. We always have desert and a huge meal cause of course it is a really big deal that the missionarys are over."
They present a message they prepared for the family and ask them to pray for them and other missionaries around the world. He says that they are so full that they "can't walk cause they fed us so much" and so the members drive them home! They get ready to go out tracting or to go on an exchanges at 7. Exchanges are when each missionary goes out with a different member of the ward and they enjoy this a lot.
"And we go tell around 8:30 or 9 depending on if we are at an appointment or not. People just don't like us knocking on doors around 8:30 at night. I don't understand why ;) . We then go home and plan for the next day. Who we are going to teach or what area we are going to tract."
They get out of the dress clothes they have been in for 13 or more hours and either go get in bed and say companionship prayer or "we play hacky sack and talk to the family that we live with until about 10. "
"And then we hit the sack and pray for our families back home and look at your pictures write in our journals and then dream about all of yall back home. That is my day most every day and i enjoy it alot."
He tells of his first day tracting when they were let into a home by a young Russian girl whose sister ended up coming out into the room they were in twice dressed only in a towel! What a first day of tracting experience!
He "would love pictures of the mountains with all of those trees turning nice colors" and as much snail mail as possible."
Fix the Address!
Good-ole UPS - how hard could it be to figure things out?
Apparently Elder Ben gave us the wrong zip code to his house in Vancouver. His zip code is actually 98682, not 98684. Here's the (I think!) right address.
Elder Benjamin Anderson
Frustration, frustration:(
Apparently Elder Ben gave us the wrong zip code to his house in Vancouver. His zip code is actually 98682, not 98684. Here's the (I think!) right address.
Elder Benjamin Anderson
14006 NE 45th St
Vancouver, WA 98682Frustration, frustration:(
Monday, October 18, 2010
Like water in the dessert!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
From the Field that is White...or rather Green...
Ben says that where he lives in Vancouver is sort of like living in Orem but with about 5000 more trees! His area is only about 2 square miles and he walks. His parents have sent money for a bike which he will get soon. He says he'll lose weight except that each night they eat a a member's house and they feed them well!
More highlights from today's e-mail -
1. "I am loving it and I hope that you have seen the blessings from me being out here as a full time missionary."
2. "I have seen the blessings from consecrating myself to the Lord and I am loving the opportunities he gives me to spread the gosepl.
3. " I am waiting urgently for the news of home. I want to know everything. But not through e-mail. Please send me letters - 14006 NE 45th Street, Vancouver, WA, 98684. I love to get letters,"
4. He has pictures that his nephews sent hung in his room.
5. "I am loving it up here in the Washington Kennewick mission."
6. "My companion's name is Elder Morgan from Orem Utah. He went to Orem High and graducated in 2008. He played baseball and was the pitcher. He played at UVU and was the pitcher there as well. I love him to death and he really helps me work hard and love the area."
7. " Dylan got my longboard last sunday. That was cool and I hope he enjoys that".
8. "Also Meg you better let me drive my truck when I get back there or I will wither up and die. I miss that thing and hope you take good care of it. Sorry I didn't take very great care of it. And btw it needs an oil change really really badly. I am like 7 thousand over."
9. "Love you all" Elder Anderson
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Itty Bitty News But Still Good News Tuesday
We didn't get an e-mail from Ben today (wah!), but did get a letter. It doesn't say much except -
1. We didn't send a pillow when we sent the sheet set; he needs a pillow (will be sent tomorrow!)
2. We didn't send his extra deodorant, toothpaste, etc.; he needs it (will be sent tomorrow!)
3. Mr. Mac didn't get him the correct back-ordered second set of suit pants; the ones they sent are the wrong color. I've called the store and they need a picture of the suit coat and pants because they think they sent him the right pants.
4. He'd really like more ties because of the 8 he took, one stains his shirt and 7 ties just isn't enough. He says "I really bad need a lot more ties. Like a camel needs water." Funny! I wondered why he didn't take more (at least a dozen more will be taken out of his closet and sent tomorrow!)
5. He'd really like a third suit "if money isn't too tight." Ha-ha. I just transferred money into his bank account so he can buy a bike! ....if money isn't too tight! I don't think he'll be getting a third suit for a while unless one of you wants to buy it!
6. He is living in a member's home in the basement. "It is a very nice living area. I enjoy it."
7. They've gone tracting "and have had a good time so far." I wonder what that means?
So that's about it. He doesn't write very newsy letters, but we know he is doing good. He is enjoying it and having a "good time."
AND
we have his mailing address!
Here it is -
Elder Benjamin Anderson
14006 NE 45th Street
Vancouver, WA 98684
1. We didn't send a pillow when we sent the sheet set; he needs a pillow (will be sent tomorrow!)
2. We didn't send his extra deodorant, toothpaste, etc.; he needs it (will be sent tomorrow!)
3. Mr. Mac didn't get him the correct back-ordered second set of suit pants; the ones they sent are the wrong color. I've called the store and they need a picture of the suit coat and pants because they think they sent him the right pants.
4. He'd really like more ties because of the 8 he took, one stains his shirt and 7 ties just isn't enough. He says "I really bad need a lot more ties. Like a camel needs water." Funny! I wondered why he didn't take more (at least a dozen more will be taken out of his closet and sent tomorrow!)
5. He'd really like a third suit "if money isn't too tight." Ha-ha. I just transferred money into his bank account so he can buy a bike! ....if money isn't too tight! I don't think he'll be getting a third suit for a while unless one of you wants to buy it!
6. He is living in a member's home in the basement. "It is a very nice living area. I enjoy it."
7. They've gone tracting "and have had a good time so far." I wonder what that means?
So that's about it. He doesn't write very newsy letters, but we know he is doing good. He is enjoying it and having a "good time."
AND
we have his mailing address!
Here it is -
Elder Benjamin Anderson
14006 NE 45th Street
Vancouver, WA 98684
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