Christianity

This week was good, a little slow but super good!
We taught Ralph Rodriguez with Bro Austin Monday night and that was great! But we tried to contact him on Saturday and couldn't. SO that was sad, we were hoping he would come to church.

Wednesday while knocking on doors we knocked on the house of one of the ladies we met at the food pantry about a month ago. She is a really nice older lady, didn't seem interested in the church but she invited us to her church and we decided we would go, cause it was that night. It was the First Christian Church! We went and it was great, super nice people! All 15 of them were probably over 80, except their pastor. I have never been there for another churches communion and they were having communion that night. Really interesting and a great experience. We were able to get to know a lot of them, introduced ourselves, and got to know the pastor pretty well.

Thursday we had our District Meeting. We have a lot of young missionaries in the District and we’re all in tough areas, so finding is something we all do a lot. So I decided to train on finding and making it more effective. Also different things to try in their areas and things to help the spirit guide them to who is prepared! Also a lot on going out and making friends and teaching them the Gospel! And to invite everyone to Baptism! We also changed it up a little bit. Since the brethren received revelation to meet in a council for the first Sunday in third hour of church. That made me receive revelation to have District Meeting as a council. Making it more of a discussion. I think it went great!

Also had exchanges with the Zone Leaders in Indianola, that was fun and we got to go play ball with the branch there at the Middle school so that was a ton of fun!
Friday we had dinner out in Blockton, IA. So we went out there early in the day and worked the small town all day until dinner. We found some great people and picked up a part member family.

Yesterday we had church and we got to speak! They texted us Saturday night and said they forgot to assign speakers so we got to speak haha. That was fun! I talked all about John 21: 15-17 about gathering the sheep and member missionary work! After that Bro Allen took us out to some of the surrounding towns to visit less actives or people whose record have been moved to the area. That was a success! Then we went to the Stake Priesthood meeting in Des Moines and that was super amazing! The spirit was so strong and the talks that were given were amazing! Lots of how to become better men, Priesthood Holders, and bringing Christ into Marriage. haha There was a great talk on that! Didn't really apply to us missionaries but it was awesome!

Things are going great out here and my testimony is building! We continue to have great experiences and good times! I love the work and am striving to have no regrets! Everyday is P day!! (Positivity day)

Love you all!
Elder Anderson

Some things we see while knocking on doors

Awesome sign that said go away unless you're giving out beer, so we brought him Root Beer!

Sadly he wasn't home but we will try again!

Exchanges!

Transfers

Well I stayed here in the Lenox area and got Elder Williams! He has only been out for 3 months, so he just finished up being trained. He came from Kirksville Missouri and Elder Lamborn went to Kirksville Missouri. I was also called to be a District Leader.

Last Monday the Leon Elders, Elder Crook who is from Salem came here on exchanges! I went with his Companion Elder Alton and we had a good time! Elder Crook and Elder McCabe the only other Elders in the mission that were from Salem went home last week, so I am the only one now! At least that I know.

Thursday I picked up Elder Williams and we went home and got to work. We found 3 New Investigators and one was Ralph Rodrigez, a really nice man who let us in. We had 2 lessons with him last week, one on Thursday when we found him, and another on Saturday! He was supposed to be at church but didn't show. We have a lesson planned with him for tonight so we will find out.

Friday we had District Meeting and that went great, we have a good District. There are four companionships, the Zone Leaders, and the Sister Training Leaders.

The mission is going good, it is a lot of fun. I learn so much everyday! I love studying from the Book of Mormon everyday it strengthens my testimony! I love you all!

Elder Anderson

Freezing Rain

This week was a Roller coaster!

So last Sunday night I got a call from Elder Decker, he is serving back in my last area Cedar Rapids. He told me that Reggie Cartee got permission to be Re-Baptized!! She found that out on a Saturday and the next day her and Mike flew to Logan, Utah so her Dad could Baptize her! Crazy! I am so happy for her! And that will help Mike quit smoking and get Re-Baptized because she has the gift of the Holy Ghost!

Also if you guys remember when I was in Marshalltown teaching Luis Mora he was dating a Member that lived in Honduras! He went to Honduras and got Baptized and then Married her! Super cool! I am so happy for Reggie and Luis and how I had the opportunity to teach them and help them come unto Christ!

So some highlights from the week:
Tuesday was a really slow day and DJ and Tandy had to cancel Ribs and games that night for some reason and we haven't been able to contact them since! We are so sad but we hope we can get back over there. Then Elder Lamborn got a prompting to go by the first person he ever gave a Book of Mormon to, she lives out in Lenox which is 30 minutes away. But we followed the prompting and she was actually home! We talked to her for awhile and gave her another Book of Mormon cause she lost the other one! haha She said she will come check out our church soon! She lives pretty close to the church building. She is 92 and is still driving! She gets around really well!

Wednesday we went to Centerville, Iowa for a triple blitz, where 3 companionship’s hit the area hard. It was a lot of fun! I went with E Gardiner and we found 3 new investigators! The next morning when we went to leave we were told not to by President because of the Freezing rain, it was super cold with a super bad wind. And everything was ice! So we blitzed that area again. We were able to help them out quite a bit!

Friday was District meeting and we got to watch the Funeral for the Prophet Thomas S. Monson! I am gonna miss him so much, he set such an amazing example for us all and grew the church greatly! I know him to be a prophet of God! If you didn't watch the funeral I encourage you to do so! Watch it for Family Home Evening or something! It was awesome!

Saturday we spent time rounding up all of our investigators and trying to get them to church! We were able to see a few people but no one came to church! :( Church was great though, I love Branch Council! I have been trying to bring things that I saw were successful in my other areas to this Branch. Which has been great! I think this branch is starting to do really well with the 4 new families. Now we just need to get Investigators to church!

Love,

Elder Anderson

​​​​​​​​our Church Building that's in a house!

A really cool frozen lake we went to when it was randomly like 45 degrees one day!

me with a cool wall. haha

some deer sausage we got from DJ steele from a buck he killed

Some beautiful ice skating =)

Another lake and a bit colder! 

Iowa Weather

Yo everyone! Hope y'all had a good holiday season and set some good New Year's resolutions!
So this week we spent a lot of time going by former Investigators. Since it was so cold they didn't want us knocking. But it warmed up pretty quick, it’s like 35 now. Super nice. So I will just talk about some people we found.

DJ and Tandy and their family! So they used to have missionaries come over a lot and they loved them and would have them over for dinner and what not. But they stopped going because apparently some missionaries came and told them they couldn't come anymore because I guess he wasn't progressing or something. They told him that's what their District Leader told them. haha I don’t know why you would say that to someone investigating the church. Anyway we went by, he let us in, and is super nice. Right off the bat I saw some big bucks on the wall and started asking him about them. We talked about hunting for awhile, he and his wife had shot some good bucks. Then his wife and his son Johnny came home and we had a good spiritual discussion. DJ is an ex marine Sniper, Cop, and is now a Rocket Scientist! haha super cool. We believe he needs forgiveness from the lives he took at war. But they fed us dinner and he showed us some awesome card tricks haha. They are so cool and they invited us over for tomorrow night. There having DJ's famous ribs and it's game night! Super excited.

Also found Lindsey and Nathan and their little family. They had the missionaries over a couple times and ended up not being interested. But it had been a few years so we decided to stop by and see if they are prepared now. We went by the address but no one was home. But I decided to look at their teaching record again and it said 404? So we decided to knock the houses around there and the first house was them! She let us in and told us, she really needs it now and has been thinking about it. Didn't meet Nathan but we should be going back this week.

We also found Kari and Kris and their 4 kids! We found them just knocking in Corning, Iowa about a half hour from Creston. Their really cool and wanting a church to go to! Hopefully we can get over to them this week too!

Update on Tim and Tammi. They are going through a tough time with their family. They have an abusive son who doesn't have any respect for his Mom. We set up an appointment and went over with the Second Counselor in the Branch Presidency, because he knows them. So that’s super cool, but we walked in right after an argument or something and Tim was leaving. So that was sad, pray for them, they need the love. I think their so cool and I think their son is awesome. He is like in his late 20's and needs to grow up and be on his own. They are super great I'm hoping we can help them.

We’re still teaching Rich and hoping he can get the work schedule changed up so he can come to church. And he needs to quit smoking. We’re gonna teach him the Stop smoking workshop this week.

Super awesome week, we saw a lot of success and found some awesome families! We're seeing great success finding people going through former investigators. There’s still a lot to go by, so we have a lot of work to do and have a very busy week this week! But I am super excited!

Love you all! Go to Church and read The Book of Mormon everyday! Even if your "not a church goer" haha. That's something we heard a lot this week and it bugs me! So many people aren't "Church goers." But we go because it is so important to partake of the sacrament and feel the spirit at least once a week!

Love, Elder Anderson

2018!

Hello everyone, I'm short on time so I'll make this quick. Last Thursday was Interviews and that took most of the day, after that we went on exchanges with the Leon Elders and went and did some knocking in Lamoni, IA. It's a big place for the RLDS or Community of Christ, as you can see by the name. So we talked to a lot of them and it is really awkward trying to invite them to hear our message. They pretty much now it, but don’t. Really weird.

Friday we helped a lady move in Lamoni, and that went well. We then did some knocking at the College Dorms and that was fun. 

Saturday we were back in our area and did service at the Food pantry and did some finding, but had to be in by 6 because of New Years.

Sunday it got to about -20, but they didn't want to cancel church so that was good! All the other churches around canceled. Glad we were able to partake of the Sacrament. Also went early to shovel snow at the church. Then the Zone told us to stay inside if it was below -3, and we were at -1 at that time. We weren't allowed to go knocking though. So we went and shoveled snow for less actives and members, and did some try bys. Also had to be in at 6 that day.

Monday on New Years Day we had an all day P-day with the Zone! So that was a blast!! We basically balled all day! Yesterday we had another Zone Conference, and it was good we heard a lot of good trainings, and had a good time! I hope everyone has an awesome week! And an awesome 2018!
Love, Elder Anderson

Amish parking & the Amish Store in Lamoni. We also saw a lot of Amish riding their horse & buggies

Zone Pday 1-1-2018