Sunshine

Man it’s been a great week here!  

This week we worked with the investigators we have. Since we have gotten a lot in the past few weeks so we decided to slow down the finding and work hard on helping the investigators we have found. So we taught a lot of lessons. We have some awesome investigators right now.

One of the new investigators from this week is James and he is a hilarious African American. He is super funny and kept laughing at the things we were teaching but he was very curious about it all. Like when we said Joseph Smith he said "Oh shoot here we go again!" haha and same thing with the Book of Mormon. But he’s awesome and wants us to come back and he wants to come to church. We found him knocking some apartments, and most of the apartments here have a ton of Africans from Togo living in them and they are so awesome! Some of them don’t speak good english but there really cool and funny.

Thursday we Triple Blitzed another area with the Zone leaders. We showed up and they told us me and Elder Obray are staying together while we work on someone else's area. It was really weird why we didn't get to go with someone else, we didn't know the area at all. But we found 3 new investigators for them! And all together we found 15 new investigators for them! It was awesome!

Saturday we did a lot of driving by to try and get people to church. Sunday was awesome! Our church starts at 1 so it gives us time to round up our investigators and get them to church. We had one who could drive himself, his name is Kenneth he’s really cool. Then there is Alique the 19 year old who came last week and liked it, and Alique’s friend Kendrick too. We talked to Kendrick and Alique that morning and they said they would come. But when we came back with a ride for them we couldn’t find them. We were super bummed. But at least we had Kenneth there. Church started and me and Elder Obray were the only speakers so we were up front and I was

blessing the sacrament, so I was on the side. About 10 minutes in Alique and Kendrick walked in! I was so HAPPY, I looked at Elder Obray and we both smiled, haha it was so awesome! Then we gave our talks and I went first. We were told to take about 18 minutes each, and somehow I took 25 minutes. I don’t know how but I did. haha. It was on the Promised Blessings from the Book of Mormon and how to Access them. Our investigators said they liked it and are coming back next week, so thats awesome!

It’s been a great week! I encourage you all to read the Book of Mormon everyday, just like our Prophet told us in his short but sweet talk! And always Quality over Quantity. You can read several chapters a day or several verses and get the same amount out of it. As we take small amounts and ponderize them for the rest of our day we can get a lot out of it! I love you all have a great week!

Elder Anderson

Me and Elder Obray after church

Worlds largest truck stop for lunch

Utah Ave

We dem bois

What a Week!

This week was great! We were very busy!

Monday night we had dinner with a recent convert and he always makes a ton of food, we always go over and he has like 3 plates full for each of us! I'm gonna get fat! haha But it’s always good.

Tuesday we triple blitzed an area so there were two companionships that came to one area and worked hard to find New Investigators. I was put in a trio so it was definitely different having 3 of us but it was fun. We taught a few lessons and out of the 3 companionships blitzing that area we found about 15 new investigators! It was awesome! Wednesday we were able to find a few new Investigators in our area.

We went by our Investigator Alique’s and someone from the house next door came out and we started talking to him and he said he had been wondering about where he’s going, why he’s here, and what church he should start going to. So it was awesome and we were able to teach him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He seemed to like it!

Thursday we had interviews with our Mission President and they went good! It’s always good to see him and his wife, they are such great people! After that we stopped by two potentials and they became new investigators they seemed to like it. One was a referral from the Hermanas and he is super cool and seems to like it a lot! On Friday we were knocking and ran into an old guy doing yard work and we thought he was gonna be mean cause he shook his head and said I don’t want anything. But then we got talking and he is super funny and he likes us a lot and we told him we would come back and help him with his yard work, and he would just laugh haha. Super cool old guy! Then we went to a Methodist church that night because a recent convert was playing the piano there, it was really different. It only lasted about 45 minutes and they just had different people read some scripture and then put out a candle.

Yesterday Alique invited us to his church so we said we would come if he came to ours, and he said deal! So he goes to the Mt Zion Missionary baptist church, or something like that. Man it was an awesome experience! We were the only white people there and they were all dressed real fancy and the ladies had the big hats on.  They had a play of Jesus on the cross and dancers performing and the choir was super loud and there were only like 10 people in it. They also had an awesome dude playing the keyboard and another guy on the drums! They were all getting up singing along saying "Hallelujah!" and "Amen!!". The Pastors were getting up and dancing around, man I got up too and started singing and dancing! Haha it was so cool, I have never been to anything like that! Then the pastor got up and started talking about some miracles that have happened in his life and the keyboard and drums were still going and as the story built up so did the drums and keyboard and he started talking louder and everyone started standing up yelling "Amen!" Hallelujah". People were crying and man it was something else but I loved it haha

It’s been an awesome week here in Illinois and I'm excited for this week. We have some awesome lessons set up for tonight that I'm excited for! I love you all and hope you have an awesome week!

Love, Elder Anderson

PS: I'll send pictures next week.

Pretty Good Week Here in Moline!

On Mondays we have Zone P day so the whole zone gets together and plays games, so that's pretty cool. Nothing too exciting this week, we have been working hard to find new investigators. We have some cool investigators and they all said they would come to church but none of them showed up, so that was a bummer! We taught Ashish and Niqita at the church and showed them the finding faith in Jesus Christ video. They are Hindu so it’s different teaching them. They have been investigators for awhile now and either aren't progressing or progressing super slow. They told us they would come to church but didn't.

Another Investigator that they have had here for awhile is Ben Holmes. He’s about 30 years old and lives in a care center because he had a disease in his foot or something, so they cut off all of his toes and he can’t get in water until it heals. So we are waiting for it to heal so he can get baptized. But he still needs to start coming to church and gain a testimony.

The Hermanas found a nice lady and her son and they taught them the Restoration. Then they found out that they live in our area so they gave them to us. We had a great lesson on the Book of Mormon with the Hermanas there. We set up another appointment with them and it fell through and they were supposed to come to church but didn't make it.

We also got an awesome referral from a member here. The ward here is a lot different than back in Hannibal. There's not as much love for the missionaries for some reason, we only have about 4 member dinners this month. So we are working on getting member trust. We both bore our testimonies yesterday and a few people came and talked to us after so I got to know some more people that way, so hopefully the ward will pick up here soon. One awesome member gave us a referral that he found while out doing home teaching. She is a young mom that has two kids. She just got out of the army and is super cool and super open and interested. We taught her about the Restoration and she liked it. She loved the fact that there's a prophet on the earth today. We have an appointment with her on Wednesday!

We also found an investigator who looks like Wiz Khalifa! haha Hopefully we can meet with him soon. We got to ball on the streets with some guys playing street ball! We beat them pretty bad! But it was tough in my church clothes haha!  We invited them all to come play with us on Tuesday nights because that’s when a bunch of the guys from the ward get together and ball! Hopefully they show! They said they need their revenge! haha

It’s been a great week here! Me and my new companion are doing great! We are trying our best to find ways to pick this area up. I love you all and hope you have an awesome week!

Love, Elder Anderson

Me & my new companion Elder Obray

5 Months Out Already!

This week was super busy, last Monday we went on exchanges so that I could be with Elder Anitok for a day haha. We both got transferred to different areas so we most likely will only see each other one more time before he goes home in June. So exchanges were fun. Then when we went back to Hannibal I said my goodbyes to as many people as possible, I think I said goodbye to everyone. It was hard saying goodbye I wish I could have stayed one more transfer but that’s ok I like it here in Moline. It’s gonna take some adjusting but hopefully I get used to it soon.  

Wednesday we went to the Temple and did a session and it was great! I love how peaceful it is in there, it is sooo beautiful. We also took a tour of Carthage Jail, it was awesome! An older Sister Missionary took us on the tour and it was sooo cool! The spirit was strong also! Then we went back to Hannibal and I packed up my stuff as fast as possible and went to Quincy to spend the night because I was leaving with a member in Quincy in the morning.  

So Thursday morning we went to Iowa City and I switched my luggage over to the other car with a member from Moline and we were on our way! My new Companion is Elder Obray, he is from Layton, Utah, he has been out for about 8 months. He also just finished serving with Elder Blau my old MTC companion haha. So we joke around about him sometimes. But it’s all going good out here, just trying to adjust! The area is doing alright but we’re gonna try and get a bunch of new investigators as soon as possible. So I hope we can see a lot of success this transfer.  

General Conference was great! There was a lot of good talks! The thing that stuck out to me was how we need to act on spiritual promptings the first time. I believe someone said that Joseph Smith said that 9 out of 10 times the first prompting is the spirit! So always act on your promptings the first time no matter how hard it is. We watched General Conference at the Stake Center on Saturday. Then Yesterday we watched the morning session at a nice old ladies house from the ward. Then the afternoon session at another members and they had a super nice house and they fed us an awesome meal after. Some Tri tip and some great mashed potatoes! That’s about it for this week! I love you all!  Have a great week!

Love, Elder Anderson

Carthage Jail

Saying Goodbye to Terry and Ethen

Goodbye to the Cooke family

Goodbye to the Shethis

Goodbye to the Voelkel's