Praying With Drunks

Great week!

Last Monday we had a bunch of Chinese guys come play ball for P day! One was a recent convert and some of the other ones are investigators! And they were all pretty good at ball! So that made P day fun! That night we went to the Sanchez Family for family night, and the Dad doesn't speak any English so most of the time everyone is speaking Spanish so I just sit there and act like I'm paying attention when I have no idea what’s going on! Haha

Some Highlights from the week are when we prayed with drunks. Haha So we went by an African family that we found and they are already members but they haven't gone for a little while, they were Baptized a year ago in Kansas. Their house has close to nothing in it, not even mattresses or a couch, they sleep on blankets, it's so sad, we have been trying to find them some free stuff. But the Mom has gotten back into smoking and drinking so she wants us to help. Her brothers are always outside on the lawn drunk and smoking and causing neighbors to get mad. The one drunk brothers name is Jimmy and he is always drunk and on something and the whole town knows him! haha But he said "Let's Pray, Let's Pray"  so we said ok, then we were all holding hands praying when a lady in a nice big truck rolled up and started yelling at Atong the mom. She was furious that the drunks were still there, then she called the cops and had the cops tell them to leave! haha We were just awkwardly sitting there in the middle of it all.

Another Highlight is when I went on exchanges with a missionary that just got to the mission field 2 weeks ago. I thought it was the perfect time to take him to Mike Curly, the crazy, insane excommunicated member. Haha We went and I let him go first and Mike was going crazy, and he just talks so fast and is always running around asking questions and talking about his home made wine, and why they excommunicated him. Haha the Greenie was so shocked, and for the rest of the night he was like "Why did you take me there!!"

We have Jessi Gobble as our best Investigator right now, she will be getting baptized on September 8th. She is really cool except she has had a very tough life. She has lost around 5 kids, all when they were very young or not even born yet, because of her husband. He is a recovering drug addict, lots of meth. He is not allowed to live with her right now but he will be soon. He smokes a lot, and Jessi has recently quit smoking because she is ready to give it up and come to Christ and be baptized. She has 2 kids right now, and I really hope things will go good for her, she is really excited to be Baptized. Lately she has had really bad migraines, but she is still coming to Church and we had a good lesson yesterday with the Dunn’s the Senior Missionary couple. We taught her Tithing and Fast Offerings. She loved it and said she is already doing it! So that was awesome!  Keep her in your Prayers.

We have Luis Mora also, he is in his 30's from Mexico, speaks good English, and is dating a member that lives in Honduras. They met each other on line and he just got back from meeting her and her family for the first time. He came to Church for the first hour and had to leave for some reason. His date is to be Baptized Sept. 23rd, but he might wait because he is going to Honduras again in December and might get Baptized down there so his Girlfriend can be there. But we encourage him to do it as soon as possible because, Satan will work on you harder and harder if you wait. We will see what he decides.

We have Brandy, a girl we met this week. she is kinda shy and pretty weird, but we taught her twice this week. She came to church for all 3 hours and found out that some members in the Ward are her Grandparents by Marriage! So that's awesome! Instant fellow shippers! So we’re excited for her!

We have found 6 new investigators this past week, one couple that is super sick! The guy had a nice haircut and said he cuts hair and said he would cut ours for free! They also said they have been looking for a church and then we showed up. Their so cool, I sure hope they don’t get antied, because she was looking Thomas S. Monson up online. haha Usually that ends up in the people seeing anti.

This is really long but it was another great week, my love grows for this work every day! I love talking to people about the Gospel constantly and finding ways to make it more and more fun! This week I have been cruising thru the Book of Mormon, I love the stories and the great teachings it has. I encourage you all to read as much as possible from the Book of Mormon everyday. It truly will bring you closer to Christ and will make your day so much better!  

Love,

Elder Anderson

Our backyard

Something Cool

This week was fun, last Monday we played ball with the District, it was pretty good ball. But the Zone leaders don’t come every week so today we didn’t have very good ball, kind of a bummer.

Tuesday we did service for a really cool/funny member. After, he played us in pool and foosball in his man cave! He is really good at pool, and thinks he is really good at foosball. But this week I’m gonna show him a thing or two! haha He is one of those guys that used to play pool, foosball, air hockey, darts and what not for a living! Pretty cool. I’ll keep you updated haha

Wednesday we did a triple blitz in our area, so two other companionships came and we hit our area hard! It was fun, I went with Elder Dunford and he is from San Diego, so we had fun talking about that haha. We went to Eldora, Iowa it’s 40 minutes from Marshall Town but is a nice little town out in the middle of nowhere. The people were super nice but nobody wanted to listen. That night we hunted some possums with golf clubs in our back yard, because there is a ton of them! We got one tree'd but never got it down haha. And we thought we found another one, so we ran after it but it was a skunk so we ran back! I wasn't about to get sprayed!

The rest of the week we had District meeting and the car appreciation day where we walk all day long. Luckily it hasn't been hot here at all! Which is crazy for the middle of August out here. So we talked to a lot of people. We got dropped off by a member one day to go by someone and right when we got out a guy from the 2nd story of an apartment building was yelling "come here come here quick!" And we were like is he talking to us? haha So we went and the guy was pretty Psycho and talking super fast and running around putting clothes on and cleaning up his house. And he yelled I’m a returned missionary! Long story short he got excommunicated for some reason. Probably cause our WML said he got caught growing weed on his front porch and who knows what. He is pretty creepy, but I mentioned my dad served in the same mission he did and around the same time. So he freaked out trying to think if he new my dad. Then we left and were at the library taking mormon.org time and he walked in and said "there they are!" haha and came and talked to us and said he had an Elder Anderson as his companion but he wasn't sure if it was the same one. But he said he was going crazy and riding his bike everywhere to find us and doing research to see if he knew him. Haha Im sure we will run into him again so we will see what happens!

Anyways we have some great investigators, not as many as I would like, so hopefully we can change that this week. One of them is Jessi Gobble, her husband is a member but very inactive and is a drug addict. He is in a halfway house, so like half jail I think. haha He isn't a very good man idk why she is with him, but his parents are active members and that’s how they found Jessie and we have been teaching her with the Dunns, a senior couple that works in Marshall town also, so she is on date to be Baptized Sept 2nd.

Also we have Luiz who is dating a member that lives in Honduras and he just got back from visiting her, so he should be getting baptized soon also!

Sorry this is so long, I don’t have pictures this week!  Love you all!  Keep praying and going to church!

Love, Elder Anderson

Marshall Town

Well I have been transferred to Marshall Town, Iowa! My new Companion is Elder Dotimas, he is from Maryland, originally from the Philippians. He is a Spanish Elder so we do a lot of Spanish lessons where I pretty much just sit there! haha He can speak Tagolick, Spanish, English, and some Martial Ease. Pretty cool! Man I really wish I would have learned a language now! Marshall Town is kinda smaller, still a good size tho.  Lots of Mexicans, cool little town overall! Yes there are still waves of corn just on the outside of town! We live with members in the basement, they are old and don’t do much or go anywhere. But it is a nice house, and we have a nice place, with sleep number beds, there so cool, they move up and down and give massages! haha  We drive a 2015 Subaru Legacy, it’s pretty nice!

Well It was hard leaving east Moline, I really loved that area but I'm excited to be here! I don’t know much about our area yet. We have just been finding and teaching some investigators that they already have. We found a few new investigators that are pretty cool and one of them gave us awesome ceramic dragons! He paints them and just gives them away to people!

In East Moline I had to say goodbye to Demetrice! I was so sad, he is super solid and I hope he can continue to progress. Me and him got along great, but the relationship wasn't the same with my comp that is staying there, and I don’t think the new guy will get along with him as well as we did! I hope he can keep going!  Demetrice also came to Tuesday night ball! So sick!

Well I’m Excited to be here in Marshall Town, I love My New Companion he is super funny! And We had one cool Investigator at church that I haven't really gotten to meet yet. I will let you guys know more next week!

Love you all!

Elder Anderson

Goodbye to Tom Parsons, one of the Recent Converts in East Moline

Goodbye to Elder Baxter, he returned home from his mission last week! He was a stud and I learned a lot from him!

Saying goodbye to the stud Demetrice!