White Christmas

Hello! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I'm pretty glad that this is my last Christmas away from home. Definitely missed home. But now I can say, I'll be home for Christmas! So today is our P day because Monday was Christmas and they let us have P day today which is nice.

Last Monday we got to play ball at the YMCA with Austin Bloyd, he is in the Branch and has been a little less active even tho he is only 15. In the town of Creston where he lives there is a lot of racism. He is African American and he has gotten death threats and everything. It’s so bad that he has to get home schooled now. So we have been trying to lift his spirits. We had a great time playing ball with him, he is pretty good too so that was fun.

Tuesday we had a Christmas Zone Conference, basically just sang songs and heard some training's on the birth of Jesus Christ. That took up our whole day, long meetings.
Wednesday we had a lesson with our investigator Rich, he is about 65 and works at Mcdonald's. Nice guy, and he works on the weekends so he can’t come to church right now. We'll see where he goes.

Thursday was exchanges, I went with Elder Baldersten, that was a lot of fun. Elder Baldersten is from Utah and we have served around each other for over 6 months. Friday we finished exchanges and weekly planned and did some finding.

Saturday we did service for the Creston Food pantry and that was great! They fed us lunch too! Also did a round up to get people to church but no one showed! It was only an hour too! But it snowed 5 inches that night so they probably got scared! Also was my Dad's Birthday so Happy Birthday Dad!!

Sunday we went to Church then went out to Blockton Iowa and had lunch at a get together with a members family. Pretty much their entire extended and immediate family makes up the city of Blockton so they were all there. That was fun and they sang some karaoke! Then we went to the Bloyds for dinner, and had a good time there.

Monday we got to sleep until 9:30 so that was great, but I couldn't even sleep that long, I’m so used to getting up at 6:30. Then we went to the Bloyds again for lunch and played Clue, then we went to the Branch President’s house, and got to Skype home! It was great to see the family. That was fun but ended up being really hard. On that skype call home I heard that my Uncle Dan had passed away. It was such a shock it was hard to take. I loved my uncle Dan so much! I'm so sad that he had to go so soon, but I know he is in a better place now and will help us from the other side. I love and miss him and the Floyd family is in my prayers.

I love that I get to take the Plan of Salvation to all these people and bring to them comfort by letting them know that they can be with their loved ones forever and will see them again. There are so many people that believe after this life, it's all over. A lot of the time when we’re out knocking, that is the first thing I tell these people, is that Families can be together forever in happiness! Because it is so true and people need to know that.

I love this Gospel and the comfort and happiness it can bring to us. Especially the Book of Mormon, that book can heal us, as we ponder it's words every day it will heal us and bring our lives joy!
I love you all and your all in my prayers!

Love, Elder Anderson

With President and Sister Badger

Its freezing!

Lots of these signs marking where the saints went through, and lots of these towns I cover are from people who decided to stop, and they lived where they stopped, and now there towns. So lots of church history.

This is where we live and that's our car! haha

Merry Christmas!

I can't believe it is already here again! It doesn't feel like it though, we’ve been having good weather for a while now and the sun is still shining! Normally it is grey and cloudy for months out here in winter. But I guess it's not here yet. No snow yet either.

Well I'm getting used to the area. This week we spent most of our time going by members or Former Investigators and then Knocking all around their houses. We were able to pick up 12 new investigators, so we will see where they all go! We are excited for a couple of them. Also did service at the YMCA and a food pantry. That was fun.

Our Zone here is pretty cool but we never see them besides at District meeting. Church was good, we had a lot of people show, so it was a full house! Literally, it was because we had a branch potluck, so that got out all the less active families. ahaha.

We’re still lighting the world by giving plates of cookies to random people haha. Elder Lamborn loves to cook and bake so he makes me good food! He makes cookies and what not and we will take them out and put them on peoples doorsteps and run! haha

That’s about it for this week, at least that's all I can remember! I did finish the book of John and I loved it! I learned a lot from it, definitely helped me grow closer to my Savior. I encourage you all to strive to grow closer to your Savior by lighting the world this week! Spread the light and love of Christ!

#lighttheworld #MerryChristmas

Love, Elder Anderson

The Boonies

Yes they finally did it, they sent me to the middle of nowhere! Haha I am in the Lenox area, we live in Creston, IA. Super small town. And we cover tons of super small towns all around here, but there all like 45 minutes away. We drive a 2017 Toyota Corolla, our apartment is super small. It was hard adjusting to this place since I came from Cedar Rapids, but it's growing on me.

It was hard saying goodbye to everyone:

Monday I kinda wrapped up training Elder York, and did some work. We talked to a Basher and Elder York kinda lost his temper, he was like slamming the Bible on the table and stuff. Haha pretty funny.

Tuesday we went and said goodbye to Camron, then later that day we got our transfer calls! Then we had a good lesson with Rosie and said goodbye. She cried and it was sad! Also said goodbye to Reggie and Mike, the excommunicated couple we have been working with, their so awesome and I’m gonna miss them. They have come along way and Reggie sent in her letter to the 1st presidency to hopefully get re-baptized!

Wednesday we played a lot of pool with the Zone at a members house, that was fun. Then we had my last Ward Coordination meeting and dinner with the Espinosas. Also went to Red Robin and Camron got us free milkshakes and a mud pie to go! Love that man!

Thursday I got here and visited the Branch Mission Leader and the Branch President. When I got here I called them and got lucky I was able to get to know both and hear about the Branch and what kind of help it needs. Yesterday we went to church in Lenox. They meet in a small house! haha pretty different! but cool.  

Love you all! Elder Anderson

Goodbye to the Ward mission Leader Bro Sherwood

Me and my new companion Elder Lamborn

Nativity

This week consisted of Last Monday, we went to a cool state park with big cliffs and the Cedar River. Tuesday we went on exchanges, I went with Elder May he is super fun, we had a lot of fun together. We even went and got cheap blankets from Walmart and went and put them on peoples porches and knocked and ran off. We set up his GoPro in the bushes next to the peoples door and so we have them on video! haha it was awesome. We could tell the people were super thankful. On one door some kids came out and thought it was awesome, and they yelled "YOU EASTER BUNNY!!" haha It was super funny!

On Wednesday we had apartment appreciation day, a day the mission has set aside to clean the apartments all day and donate all the left behind clothes and what not. So that was crazy, but our apartment is way clean now! That night was ward coordination and it was Rosie's first time, but she did awesome and told some stories about how she is already sharing the Gospel! SO awesome!

Thursday was District meeting and Zone lunch. That took up a lot of the day but we had some time to find a new investigator and go by some of our Investigators. Also, we had Dinner with THE Sis Thornbloom! Friday we spent time with Cameron, had lunch and a lesson! He is still awesome and said he is gonna take us on a vacation out of the country when we get home! Haha I can’t wait for that he is awesome! Only had about 15 minutes to go finding this day but we found a cool New Investigator that was friends with the Bishop’s daughters! That night we had a great lesson with Rosie and we showed her the Restoration video and the spirit was so strong and everyone in the room felt it! Then we went to Applebees with Sis Krsek. She is awesome and takes us out to eat every week! After that we went to the Nativity at the Stake Center. So at the church they have about 800 nativities set up, mainly on tables, lots of small ones, and they are all sooooo cool! But the main one is about life size and used to be in a popular store in Downtown Cedar Rapids, and a lot of the public loved it. However it got damaged in the flood in 2008, but Church members took it in and fixed them all back up and now they have them on display every year! So tons of the public comes to this awesome event! And while you look at the nativities, there are choirs and bands playing. I even sang in the choir for a little bit of it, and an awesome bell band from the Methodist church in town! So tons of non members come out to the event, and there has been a lot of miracles and stories of people telling everyone about it, and feeling the spirit so strongly there. We got to share the gospel with a lot of the people there! Over Friday and Saturday there were about 1500 people that went! Such an awesome event to get people in the Church building to feel the spirit there!

On Saturday we spent a lot of time at the Nativity talking to people and showing them around. Sunday was great as always! We got another Potential Investigator that lives in a mansion! haha And had 2 dinners, I ate way to much at both of them! The Second one was Filipino food, super good but I can still smell it on my jacket. haha.

Tomorrow we get Transfer calls and I am most likely leaving! I love it here so much and don't wanna leave but I will do what the Lord wants me to do! I'm excited to see what happens! Because the wards are all changing on Dec 17th and lots of missionaries are gonna be leaving this area so we will see who stays. I love this Gospel and I love being able to serve the people of Iowa. I love getting able to share this Unique message with people every week!

Love you all! Elder Anderson

Palisades State Park!

Nativity at the church

Thanksgiving!

This week was great, we stayed busy with lessons and member meals.

Wednesday night Elder Alton and I were on exchanges and we went and had an awesome lesson with a sick Less Active family. After that we went knocking for a little bit but, had no success, and I told him we should go apologize to the guy we made mad. Lol So last Sunday when we were Mansion Knocking we knocked on one and the guy wasn't interested. Then as we were driving out we took the wrong road and went down to this guy’s pond and had to back up and drove on his grass a little bit and when Elder York got out to back us, the guy was up at his house yelling at us to get the truck out of there. So we did and he came to the road at the top and cussed us out and took a picture of our license plate. He told us that the ground is really soft down there so we made huge ruts. We didn't feel like we did, it was dark so we couldn't see if we did. We wanted to go and apologize to the guy the next day but Elder York and Elder Decker were not wanting to. They said he will be super mad at us still, or there is no point in doing it. Idk why they thought that. But Wednesday night we went back and apologized. We got let into the mansion and talked to the guy and he was happy to see us. He said there were no ruts and he smiled and laughed and it went great. After that we felt soooo good it was awesome! The other guys felt pretty dumb after we told them.  

Thanksgiving day we had Breakfast with Sis Thornbloom then went and played ultimate frisbee with the zone. Then had dinner, then another dinner, then another dinner! haha We were so full! It was all good food tho! After that I called up some Investigators and got them to the Church so we could play basketball and burn some calories! That went great, and felt great!

On Saturday we were able to attend 2 awesome baptisms for the Zone! One was for a 13 year old boy who’s dad finally let him get baptized after 2 years. Missionaries that taught him and had gone home came back for it. It was a full house and was awesome!

Yesterday we had a good time mansion knocking! Talked to some great people and even got a potential investigator haha. Also, yesterday Rosie received a calling to be a Ward Missionary!!!!! So awesome! I’m so happy she gets to come to the Ward Coordination meetings now and will share the Gospel with all her friends and Family! I love this work!!

Yesterday we got an awesome Investigator to Church and he bonded really well with the members! It was awesome, we are seeing so many miracles out here and I love it. Transfers aren’t for another 2 weeks, so that’s good!

Love you all! Elder Anderson

Another Day in Ohio

This week was great! Monday was a good normal P day of Basketball, Soccer, and Ultimate Frisbee with the Zone. Monday night we had Dinner with the Oneil’s. Bro Oneil is in the Stake presidency, it was awesome he is sooo smart. He pumped me up to work even harder, he told some awesome stories too and he let us ask him any questions about the Gospel. So of course I asked "where is the sword of Laban?" haha He said "maybe in heaven maybe on earth, I like to think it’s somewhere on earth though"  pretty good answer haha. He was a super cool guy.

Tuesday we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders, I went with Elder Clark, pretty weird kid. I had a terrible headache and started to get a cold, pretty weird/ off day.

Wednesday we went to lunch at a care center with some old ladies from the Ward, their old but they are so awesome and so nice. One of them gives out cards that say things like "you are terrific" but you only get it if you are. haha She gave one to our investigator at church so that was awesome lol good thanksgiving food tho. Also took out Bro Clark to work with us, he is an older African American convert of about 5 years and he is so awesome. He brought his baptism picture to show to our investigators and bare his testimony. Man it was great having him out with us!

Thursday was Zone Conference back in Davenport! That was fun and we got some Whitey’s!! So good, and we went and visited Sis Hirst, the nice lady from the ward that always had us over! That was cool to visit an old area.

Friday was great we visited with Camron and had a great lesson on Families and Temples. I love that Pamphlet and the Learning and Serving in the church one, they really help! Afterwards we spent some time with Camron and his Best friend and his super funny brother. They are all so much fun and they went and got us some good Italian food! That evening we had an awesome lesson with Rosie helping her learn more about the Temple and Family History work. We had the Stake family history lady and her husband there to help us teach her. It went great, Rosie is excited to go to the Temple. Also, Rosie is soon to be called as a Ward Missionary!!! I’m so excited for her!

Well other than that it was a normal weekend and rounding up our investigators for church.  

Love, Elder Anderson

Zone Conference

Whitey's!!

Rosie Merritt

What a week! To keep things short, we kept things very busy with lessons, finding, and biking.  

MIRACLE We got back in contact with Alexis and David. Apparently they were pretty sick for a while. We had an awesome lesson and brought Bro Espinosa with us! Bro Espinosa is a stud and a Returned Missionary and from Ecuador! He even wants to have Alexis and David over for Dinner at his house with his wife, and show them their wedding video so they will want to get married asap! We’re super excited for that.

MIRACLE Rosie got BAPTIZED!! It all went so well, we got all the talks and everything assigned and it went awesome! The spirit was so strong! Elder York got to Baptize her and I got to Confirm her! Such an awesome experience and opportunity! Rosie loved it!   

MIRACLE Our Investigator Quincy that we just found last week came to the Baptism and Quincy and is on date for Baptism on Dec 2nd! He is so cool!

Also had interviews on Friday, which I love cause I love the Badgers! President was able to give me some advice on how to help the excommunicated members we are working with, Mike and Reggie. They are so awesome! He is a returned missionary and used to be the Elders quorum President, both raised and from Utah. Been away from the church for over 20 years. But they are really close, but he picked up smoking, and it is holding them back. Reggie is his wife and they got married in May. Since he is an RM, he pretty much knows all the answers so that is why I asked President because I was stumped. President told me to teach the Word of Wisdom very spiritually. The thing he needs is the spirit. I will let you know how it goes. They seemed pretty exhausted, Apparently president only got 4 hours of sleep. haha but I am very grateful for the work they do for us! They are awesome!

It has been an awesome week, especially seeing Rosie get Baptized and Confirmed! I have loved being able to teach her. The first Sunday we were here we met her and that week we started teaching her! I bore my Testimony on how thankful I am for the great Ward here and their involvement with the Missionary work. I'm very grateful for Sis Garner wanting us to teach her! All of it has added to and built my Testimony! I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!

Love, Elder Anderson

Rosie is on the right in the middle, and Sis Garner is next to her. Love them both so much!

I started a new tradition of Knocking Mansions every Sunday!

365 Days??

1 Year down already! I can't believe it, it has been such an awesome experience! I LOVE MY MISSION! I have learned so many things out here that I would have never learned back home! I'm so grateful for this great opportunity! And I still get one more year! :)

So this week on Monday it was beggar's night, idk what that means just the night before Halloween I guess. So they grounded the cars at 6 on Pday. We didn't have any appointments or member meals, so they told us to stay in and we were on exchanges, so I got to cut the other 3 Elders hair! Haha They all turned out pretty good! The next day was Halloween! We had Zone exercise and went to Ihop with the Zone! Knocked a little bit, it was funny to be out knocking on Halloween evening, the first thing we would say was Trick or Treat! Haha That was fun! And then Sis Krsek from the ward took us to Olive Garden! YUM!

Wednesday we did a lot of work, went by a lot of people and taught a lot and knocked a lot.

Thursday was my 1 Year mark! We had Zone Exercise and District meeting and a great lesson with Rosie. Then went to a great restaurant to end the night! And burned a shirt! haha

Friday and Saturday was more work. We lost contact with Alexis and David, idk what happened we have called, texted, and gone by but haven't gotten anything. We sure hope all is well with them they are so cool! We also balled on Saturday morning which is always way fun! This weekend was stake conference and it was awesome! Some GREAT talks on retaining Recent converts! And Family History and temple work! Rosie was there and she loved it and she passed her Baptismal Interview! She is getting BAPTIZED this Saturday!

Last night we went to a members and they fed us soooo much fried steak! I think I'm sick but it was good! Also had Waffles this morning with Sis Thornbloom the coolest old lady that still moves like she is 30. We helped her clean her gutters by holding the ladder for her!  haha She is awesome!  

I love you all! The Church is true! Elder Anderson

Elder Anderson

With Cory Rice, my home teacher from back home, at stake conference

One year down

Bikes

This is gonna be short.

We had good lessons with our investigators and they are all still progressing greatly! The Ward is fellowshipping them so well. We contacted some Less active referrals and were able to find their spouse interested in the Gospel, hyped about that.

The work is going great here still! We were able to find some great New Investigators and we’re excited! I love this work so much! I learn so much everyday! We keep seeing Faith building miracles everyday! The Church is true! Yesterday we learned in Church about how important family history work is! The people on the other side need us so badly and want us to do their work for them! I encourage you all to do so!

Love you all! Elder Anderson

Jacob trying to go big on a jump =)

Alexis and David

Last Monday we went on exchanges and I went with Elder Alton from Texas, he just finished being trained this past week and it is always fun to go out with the new missionaries!

Tuesday we all met at the stake center for Zone Breakfast and listened to everyone get there Transfer calls! That was fun, my Boi and I will be staying together! That night we had dinner with the Fagerston’s, a super fun young couple that met at BYU. haha

Wednesday was P day and we all went and played DISC GOLF! There are a lot of great courses out here! We had a lot of fun, and at the beginning they said whoever loses has to buy the winner lunch. We got playing and I won! So I got a free lunch at Wendy's! haha Good thing too because I was broke! That night we had dinner with the Nelson’s, super good food! It's always fun going to dinner because most people invite all 4 of us Elders over, so that’s cool! After that we had Ward Coordination at the Church, which is always great! This land is truly blessed! The Missionary work here is amazing!

Thursday Morning we had a lesson with Chinyere and Julius, Chinyere was the only one that sat in on the lesson and she pretty much talked to us the whole time, all about how she doesn't like the way we teach, or tons of crazy stuff. Then she said "stop trying to convert me, I am already a member of your church" CRAZY, she was already baptized in 2002 apparently. We’re gonna try and find her records this week! She is so crazy! Anyways later that day we had a great lesson with Rosie at the Church and gave her a church tour and taught her the Law of Chastity! It was great! Right after that we had a lesson with Alexis and David on The Plan of Salvation! I was hesitant to extend a baptism date, but the spirit told me to, so I did and that’s when they brought up how he can't get baptized because their living with each other and not married, and that they plan to get married now in Dec. or Jan. instead of 2020! So that was a huge MIRACLE! Super excited for them! Right after that we had a lesson with Reggie and Mike, two excommunicated members that are so AWESOME! They got excommunicated a long time ago, not sure why but they're awesome and want to be re-baptized! Mike has to quit smoking tho, he texted us on Monday saying that he is wanting to start the Stop Smoking Workshop so he cut up and threw away all the cigarettes and some members gave him a blessing. We came over that night for dinner and helped them out with the Stop smoking workshop! But he ended up smoking on Friday, but he isn't worried, it's a work in process and he will get it!

Friday we had D meet and some lessons, then helped a really overweight Investigator move. We moved her entire apartment while she sat there in her lazy boy. When we told her we had to leave early she got mad at us! So that was fun! Then we went to 5 guys with Sis Krsek and afterwards gave her a blessing to help her with her health problems!

Saturday we balled hard core in the morning and it was soooo much fun! Then Weekly planned and went by tons of people to help them come to church!

Sunday we were able to see Alexis and David there and Rosie, and Joe Smith!!! We were so happy! And in Gospel Principles they taught the Law of Chastity! Perfect for Alexis and David! Joe Smith loved it and the Ward loved him, because he is sooo cool! Another amazing week here in Cedar Rapids/Marion! The work is amazing, I’m so excited for the people we are working with and to watch their lives change! The Gospel is so true! This week I got reminded over and over by the spirit that the spirit is the only way for someone to know of the truthfulness of this Gospel!

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Anderson

Elder Alton and I

Saying good bye to Elder Spencer & Marshall. They just went home!

WORK

I can not believe it's already Monday again! What is time? And another transfer gone. This is a 5 week transfer because President Badger has to go to a Mission President Training. So next Transfer will be 7 weeks. Not really a difference since we’re training, we will still have the 12 weeks unless one of us gets transferred this week but I doubt it.

This week was so busy and cold and wet! Tuesday it was our walking day and it was dumping down rain all day, but luckily they changed the walking day because it was raining so hard. But we still had to bike a little bit because we’re still in a car share. We also had a MIRACLE happen that day! We went to our lesson with Rosie and we got Scott Brough to come with us, he is a priest in the Ward who is thinking about going on a mission after a year in the army. I think it was great for him to come out with us and have an awesome lesson. We taught her the Word of Wisdom, and she was super excited to hear that because her Doctors had already told her to get off those things for her health! So that was one MIRACLE, then she was talking about all her nephews that she pretty much had to raise because their mom was never around. And she went into detail on one for some reason. But we soon found out that it was the spirit that led her to do it. Because she talked about one of her nephews who loves to cook and works at Red Robin and I asked, is his name Cameron? And she jumped out of her seat saying "You know Cameron Harris!?!" And I said ya we just went and ate at Red Robin a couple of nights ago and met him because he was super close to being baptized about a year ago, he even signed the Baptism sheet! So we told her we were meeting with him on Friday and she said she wanted to come and surprise him! So she did and he was so shocked and knew it was a blessing from the Lord! He is the NICEST guy ever too, just super chill and awesome! We’re so excited for them!

On Wednesday me and my Boy had to go to Iowa City for the Trainer Trainee meeting, that was fun. It was a great meeting and I got to get some WHITEYS! SO good! That night we had an awesome lesson with Alexis and David, David is now a new investigator! They’re so cool, but they didn't come to church yesterday. Not sure why but we will be meeting with them this week.  

Thursday we had Zone Conference, it was great! Learned a lot about being very bold and confident in everything we do. Like with Finding, Planning, and setting dates, and striving for stronger faith with all of those. After that we all went to Texas Roadhouse which was a lot of fun!

Friday morning is when we had breakfast with Cameron and Rosie and got to know Cameron. That was awesome too. HE even said he knows our Church is the true Church on earth, he now needs to be Baptized!! haha Also did a lot of finding and going by people this day. And had a super good Dinner with Sis Thornbloom, a super cool old lady who had all 4 of us over!

Then on Saturday we got to play Basketball in the morning with the stake, and a ton of non members that come out. And for this one African American family they come and just dunk on everyone! lol not me tho! But it is so much fun playing there! After that we went to the other Elders Baptism and it went great. Elder York and I got to teach the Restoration there. Then after that we got on the Bikes and started heading to an appointment and that was a long ride in the rain. We were completely soaked and covered in sand, just to find out he wasn't home. But we still met some cool people! And we had an adventure riding through a trail in the forest and I found the largest waterfall in Iowa, I’ll send pics! Overall it was an awesome week, stayed super busy, so that's super good! I love it when we are just going non stop! I Know this work is true!!

Love, Elder Anderson

Iowa’s Largest Waterfall! haha

Big Jake

My District

Miracles Everywhere!

Miracle #1

Monday we helped a super solid Referral from a member move in, it's a couple and he is a prospective Elder and she isn't a member. But she asked about how to get Baptized and join the Church. MIRACLE. But she is in the other Elders area, so they will be teaching them, but that's fine!

Miracle #2

Bro Bailey a member challenged me to some Tennis!! So we went and played one morning and it was awesome! He is older so I stomped on him, but man the memories of Tennis all day every day were flowing in! I Love TENNIS!

Miracle #3

Solid lesson with Sis Merritt, she is still super Golden. We had a lesson at the Church with Bro Sherwood the Ward Mission Leader. It was an awesome lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Miracle #4

As we were planning I found a totally random member to go by and we went by and a cool guy in his 20's came out asking if we were looking for Alexis and we said we were. He let us in and we got talking to the both of them. They both moved here a couple of months ago. She is a member that has been inactive for a little while, both from L.A. she got Baptized when she was about 19, he isn't a member but wants to be! They told us his job just let him have Sundays off so now he can start coming to Church, and they were both talking about missionaries recently and then we showed up completely out of the blue. They both came to church and told us to come over this week to teach them! MIRACLE! I couldn't believe it! So Awesome! Except they don't plan on getting married until 2020 because weddings are expensive! haha Hopefully we can change that real quick!

Miracle #5

We got our Investigator Ryan to Church! We went with a member to pick him up and he came and right before sacrament meeting was over he asked where’s the bathroom, and left. We guess he walked all the way home! Which was quite a walk! haha we were sad that he just bailed like that. We will see if we can contact him this week.

Miracle #6

So on Friday we went by our Investigator Julius and he said to text him sometime on Sunday to set something up, but we totally forgot. Then we went to Wal-Mart this morning and BOOM, he was there and we got to meet his wife! His wife has met with missionaries a lot before in Canada and Texas, and she has gone to Church a lot! So we got an appointment for this week and are super pumped for them!

This week has been awesome! Just full of Miracles! We were also able to get in contact with a lot of Less actives that we have been trying to meet with. Sis Merritt came to Church and loved it, we haven't been able to set a solid date for her to be Baptized yet but it should be around the beginning of November! Also had Interviews with President and that went great! We all went out to a great restaurant after!

The Church is true! I love this Gospel, I love reading The Book of Mormon everyday, and praying about it everyday! You can never pray to know if The Book of Mormon is true enough. I know that it is true but I have seen that still praying about it strengthens my testimony! I love you all! Love, Elder Anderson

Our zone with President & Sister Badger

My boy, passed out =)

GENERAL CONFERENCE

What a weekend watching the Apostles of Jesus Christ speak to us! I loved all the talks and learned so much! We watched all the sessions at the Cedar Rapids Stake Center, brand new Stake Center too. Some talks that stood out to me were Elder Eyring's and Tad R Callister's! Elder Eyring's were so powerful and the spirit testified to me so strongly, gave me chills! Tad R Callister's was a big answer to my prayers and to my question, very powerful and clear!

This week we were super busy, we have been trying to free up our evenings to be able to go knocking when people are home but about everyday this week we had things going on.

Tuesday: We spent some time going by some Less Actives and Ex communicated members. We met some awesome people who are ready to change and come back to Church. Also had a lesson with Rosie, we taught her more about The Book of Mormon and General Conference, with Bro Bailey there, and it went great. She watched Conference and loved it!

Wednesday: We were going all day with District Meeting and another lesson with Rosie with our Ward Mission Leader Bro Sherwood who is a convert and the lesson was powerful. Bro Sherwood helped Rosie so much! That Night we had dinner at a nice restaurant with a member, then had Ward Coordination meeting at the Church, and man this ward is Awesome! Their truly doing their part in the Missionary work here and helping soooo much!

Thursday was my first day on the mission where I got to ride bikes!!! It was awesome! We rode around all day going by people and knocking, also spent the night helping a recent convert move.

Friday: I went on exchanges with Elder Jacobson from Springville, UT. That was fun, we did a lot of knocking in his area.  

Saturday and Sunday we spent most of the day watching conference and eating. Since we were a ways out of our area we couldn't get out to work since we had to save miles.

Great week tho, the Ward is giving a lot of solid Referrals so I am super pumped to see the success in this area! I know that this work is so true and the Apostles and Prophet are truly called of God, I loved being able to listen to them. I was sad to hear about Elder Hales, glad he went peacefully, he was a very powerful man. Sad to see that Thomas S Monson couldn't make it, I hope all is well with him. Love you all! Elder Anderson

On Bikes!

We got stranded with no car or bikes, so we bought some PIZZA!

Investigators

First week in Cedar Rapids down!! I have learned that this is a blessed place with a lot of AWESOME people! Great Ward and people to talk to!

Tuesday:

We finally got into our apartment, we moved the Zls in to there new apt and then Elder and Sister Martin a senior couple took us all out to Pizza Ranch for lunch! Pizza Ranch is a lot like Pizza Pie Cafe, except some different pizzas, and they have Ice Cream!

Wednesday:

We have Zone Exercise in the mornings, so we all go to the Stake center and play ball or frisbee so that’s fun!  We also had District meeting after that. We also had our first lesson with Rosie, Sis Gardners friend that has been coming to church. She is so awesome and so Prepared! We can’t wait for her to progress to Baptism.

Thursday:

Went by some formers and did a lot of knocking

Friday:

Found some awesome Former Investigators that want to start learning again! Also a lot of knocking and New Investigators.

Saturday:

We did some service for Bro and Sis Novak and helped them in their yard. Then lots of knocking. Saturdays are rough tho, Cause no one is home! You would think they would be, but no one was around! Same with Sundays.  

Sunday: We had Ward Council and then Church. Great time at Church, sadly no investigators there yet, but next week!  

Training has been great, my boy is pretty prepared so he is catching on quickly. Except for the sleep part, he has been exhausted lately. haha Since we’re both new to the area we have had some long days knocking doors. I wouldn't say long, they all go by so fast. We also found 10 new investigators this week. Quite a while ago I stopped asking people if they were interested and just start teaching the Restoration. If their really not interested then they will interrupt us, or if they're not prepared. This way we teach instead of knock haha. My voice hurts at the end of the day because everyone we talk to we’re teaching. TEACH TEACH TEACH, it’s the most important thing. If someone is not interested at the end of the lesson, then it is still such a bigger seed planted then just asking if they’re interested at the first. So things are great out here, my boy is catching on quick with all this teaching, we now have a lot of investigators to try to work with so this week hopefully we can follow up with all the return appointments and get people to church.

I hope you're all super excited for General Conference, on my mission I actually listen to it so I found out its awesome! haha I invite you all to watch it with a Question that you want answered. I definitely am going to. I can’t wait!  

Love you all! Elder Anderson

I gave my Boy a fresh cut!  hahaha