Diamond

Monday: We balled.
Tuesday: We triple blitzed the Perry Elders area. So three companionship were working the area all day. Elder Cionco and I knocked all day and found 5 New people to be taught! All together we found 10!

Wednesday we went to the Raccoon River District meeting. Then I left my wallet on top of the car when we left for lunch. When we got to lunch and I realized I didn't have it. Then we get a call from the mission office asking me if I lost my wallet. I was like wow, what the, how do they know? Because I new I had it at the meeting. But someone found it on the road, and it was fine and they called and we went and picked it up! Blessings!

Then we taught Randee the Plan of Salvation and the Word of Wisdom. When we told her about the word of wisdom she freaked out a little bit. And we haven't seen her since and she didn't make church. We think she is mad because everyone around her does all of those things so she can’t see herself quitting. Also taught Mike the Gospel Of Jesus Christ and that went good. But he didn't make church either.

Thursday: We had exchanges with Raccoon River in our area. Elder Cline and I knocked all day. Then played ball in the evening and Nate, a priest from the Branch brought a member of another faith. He is Pentecostal. We balled on them 2 v 2 and on the last game we challenged them so that if we win Seth the Pentecostal would have to come to our church! We won! So he came to church. He sat by Nate and enjoyed it. Afterwards we had a great lesson with him and Nate on the Restoration. Nate was helping teach and he described the Book of Mormon as a James Bond Novel! HAHAHA Seth took that the wrong way! He started saying, "So there is a bunch of girls and Tuxedos?" LOL that was funny! He says he is a pretty strong Pentecostal but he is only like 18 so we can change that! Oh and Thursday morning we played tennis again!!! And I won this time!!

Friday we finished exchanges and then went to NAUVOO! It was a nice 3 hour drive! We watched the British Pageant! Then stayed the night right next to the Temple with a senior couple! It was amazing! literally like 50 yards from the temple. In the morning we did an endowment session and that was great!

Also earlier in the week while knocking we had this SUPER ANGRY guy come out and he was SO MAD. Never had someone so mad at us. He came out and was SCREAMING in my face telling me to leave and not test him. I wasn't having it and wasn't gonna leave the apartment building unless he told me why. He was a big guy but I was a lot taller. My comp was leaving, then the guy was going back inside, but I was laughing and that ticked him off even more and he came back in my face. My comp thought I was gonna get knocked out. I wasn't scared, I knew he wouldn't touch me. If he did the cops would be on him, AND ME! LOL But my comp left so I did too.

Anyways great week!  Love you all!

Elder Anderson

Prairie Diamonds from Nauvoo

Nauvoo!

MEETINGS

This week was packed! Monday night we stayed in Des Moines and hopped in the Transfer van early in the morning and headed to Iowa City for Missionary Leadership Council. It was a great meeting. Since our mission just added the Peoria Illinois Stake we talked a lot about that and how we can apply the things they did in their mission. Lots of things learned and new approaches to different kinds of finding. In their mission they didn't do much knocking at all! Which is crazy! So some of them are trying to adjust. Because we go knocking everyday here!

Wednesday we had the Lenox Elders over for exchanges! Elder Housholder and I went knocking all day and found 6 people to be taught! Also since there is an updated version of Preach my Gospel we don’t use the word Investigator anymore, or non member. We now use Person being taught and People of other faiths. Weird switch up but it is good! Thursday we had Interviews here in Indianola. So the whole zone came to our building and President and Sister Badger came and interviewed us all. That took until about 4, and at 4 we were meeting with our Person being taught there at the church with Cole Bickham the RM from our Branch. We met with Randy the one that showed up to church last week! We taught the Restoration and it was great!

Friday we had the Mini MTC in Waukee for all the Priests and Laurels in the Mt Pisgah Stake. So we coordinated to have 6 missionaries there throughout the day. We went for the morning session and it was great! We got to give a training on How to connect with people on door/street approaches! It was a lot of fun! Saturday we got to play TENNIS!! We played with Bro Taylor here in the branch! He grew up in Omaha and went to school at BYU and now lives here with his wife and 2 kids. He played tennis in high school so once I heard that I had to play him! So we went out Saturday morning and played, it was SO much fun. I haven't played for ever! And it was the first time in this humidity! So I was completely drenched! He won the first set, I won the second, then he beat me 7 to 5 in the 3rd. BUT we are playing again this week so hopefully I won’t be rusty this time haha.

Sunday we were so excited to have a bunch of our investigators come to church. We were hoping to see at least 4 there. But one by one Sunday morning we kept striking out. Lots of excuses. Hopefully they were real and we will see them next week!

I love the work! I love being busy on the Lord's errand! I love all the memories we are making and testimonies we are growing! The Church is true, keep the commandments they will help you!

Luv you,

Elder Anderson

Bad Blurry Pic

The Mini MTC

On that knocking grind

Transfers

This week flew with transfers. Monday we were on exchanges with the Raccoon River Elders and Elder Smith and I had a great time. But their area is so rich it was hard to find anyone. Luckily we found a trailer park about 30 minutes before we had to head in and we quickly found 4 new investigators!

Tuesday we got the news that Elder Lovin was heading to Ft Dodge and I was staying and receiving Elder Mathews! He is from Highland Utah, been out for 14 months. He is a fun man! He loves ultimate Frisbee so that's cool!

Wednesday was the 4th of July and P day! So that was awesome, we got to all meet in Waukee at the church building and we arranged for everyone to bring food for breakfast. So we had crepes and tons of good toppings! Then we balled. Then we all went to a members for lunch and sand volleyball, and root beer floats. It was super hot that day but I loved it, soaked in a lot of sun and got tan! Thursday I picked up Elder Mathews and we got to work and I don’t think we have stopped yet, so that is great! We have been really busy!

Yesterday we had Stake Coordination where we met with the Stake President and President Badger and discussed the work! It was awesome! We have seen some miracles this week and found a lot of new people! We had a miracle happen this week. We have a man that is a very less active member of the RLDS church that lives below us. We have visited him a couple times and he is kind of old and grumpy. But we ran into him as we were heading in Saturday night and we talked to him and said goodbye. Then he felt prompted to go knock on our door and tell us about his daughter and how she has been having some hard times and he would like us to talk to her. So we told him we would stop by Sunday morning before church. 

We ended up not being able to because we had Branch Coordination and Branch Council and we had to ride with a member to pick up a less active we found that hasn't been to church in 25 years. BUT we were sitting in church and a member walked in with someone I had never seen before so I got excited and thought a member brought her friend and I was excited to talk to her after. Well it wasn't her friend, it ended up being our neighbors daughter!! She walked over to church and the member saw her and brought her in with her and sat by her!! What a miracle! I love seeing the Lord help us in the work! We talked to her afterwards and she was so excited to get into the church and we set a baptism date with her for august 12th!

Love you all! Love one another,

Elder Anderson

Zone Breakfast

 

Corn Pics

I’ve Got Sunshine!

Lots of fun this week! We had 3 exchanges so it flew by! Last Tuesday we were in Waukee with the Walnut Hills Elders. They have been struggling this transfer on finding anyone to teach. We had a great time and I went with Elder Jensen and we found 3 New Investigators. We were playing basketball that night with their Elders Quorum so we were out recruiting people to come. lol We asked all the new investigators, only one of them played ball. But he was 18 and owned part of the local Mexican restaurant so he was too busy.

Wednesday we ended exchanges and went to the church for some morning ball with the Raccoon River district, then we went to their District meeting. Then back to our area and met up with the Lenox Elders and worked our area for the day. I went with Elder Fuller from Alpine Utah. Him and I both started our missions in Hannibal Missouri and we both served in Mason City. So we got to talk about those areas. We did a little bit of Knocking but we were short on time. When we were knocking everyone we talked to, talked to us for like 30 minutes. So we only talked to 3 people. One was a crazy basher lady that got me going! She kept saying we were a cult and that we don't need the Book of Mormon. Then when I would try to explain things, she wouldn't let me talk for 3 seconds. Anyways that’s just an everyday thing for us, but she was making my blood boil. lol But all I had for her was love.

Thursday we went to Osceola for District meeting and afterwards we went down to Centerville to go on exchanges with those Elders. We had a good time, each companionship found 2 New Investigators. We all went to dinner with a young couple from Utah and he played Rugby for BYU. So I asked if he knew my PE coach from back in Jr High and he did. Small world.

Friday we took the long drive back to Indianola to find that it got wrecked by a huge storm. Giant trees were down everywhere. We had to go check on a members home because he was in Idaho, we drove across town and it was crazy how wrecked every yard was. Trees wrecking houses and cars! So Saturday we helped clean up a yard for a less active Part member family. Then while we were out knocking we were offering help to everyone but everyone’s automatic response is no, so no one let us help!

Sunday we had Michael Thompson come to church! He was there early and stayed all 3 hours! We had a lesson with him for 2nd hour and had a missionary that just got back home from Ukraine last week join in with us! It was an awesome lesson and turns out Mike and the returned missionary went to high school together! Super excited for him! He loves hack sack and disc golf. And he is coming to church next week too! He also walked all the way to church!

I love you,
Elder Anderson

Classic Iowa Corn Pics

Iowa Smokers

Elder Roskelley and I.  My mission Daddy. He trained me.  He goes home this Thursday!

Indianola after severe storm