Hawkeyes

This week was non stop! We were going the entire week!

Tuesday was MLC and that took all day! Wednesday we had the Iowa City District council and that takes half the day so we had some lessons after that and dinner with a great family! We get fed almost every night here! Thursday we had Cedar Rapids District Council and some lessons, dinner, and managed to get some knocking in too. Friday we were on exchanges with the YSA Elders and I was on exchanges with Elder Buchanon and he has been out for just a week or so. So we had some fun, worked hard, and did a lot of street contacting downtown talking to lots of college students! It was super fun!

Saturday was packed, we taught Bro Lewis for the second time this week, then ran out to North English to help a new family in the ward move in. Then We got home, changed, and ran to our lesson with Bro Stannard.Then we brought Bro Stoddard our WML with us. It went great! Then right after that we ran to our dinner! Then ran to the library to do Stake Coordination! Then Sunday we had Missionary Coordination Meeting at 9, then we ran to go by some people to get them to church cause church starts at 11:30 here. Then right after church we had Stake Coordination, then after that we had dinner.

Things aren't slowing down out here and I love it! We have so much to do with so little time! I love being busy on the Lord’s errand!

Love you all!

Elder Anderson

Pics

Brother Hugh Lewis and I! We are teaching him and hoping to baptize him on Sept 29th!

I got to visit my man Camron from Cedar Rapids! We went to Red Robin where he works and he hooked us up with whatever we wanted and as much as we wanted for free!!

After MLC dinner

Hawkeyes!

IOWA CITY

Hello Fam!

They sent me to Iowa City! That was inspiration because school is just starting and all the college girls are here and I go home in less than 3 months! Don't worry tho I am not getting distracted! That just means I will be talking to a lot of women about the Gospel! The sad part is that if we find an awesome college student and we start teaching them, we have to refer them over to the YSA (Young Single Adult) Elders! I am with Elder Housholder! He was the District leader in my last Zone for 2 transfers, and now were companions! So we are whitewashing in! We are both brand new to the area because the last 2 Elders that were here both finished there missions and are home! So we have a lot of work to do!

So last Thursday was transfers. We got to Des Moines around 7:30 and they had me drive the Transfer Van with all the Brand New Missionaries! So we took the 2 hour drive to Iowa City! It was fun talking to all the New Missionaries! We have a lot of the New Missionaries here in our Zone! Elder Housholder and I got right to work, we started to try and figure out all that is happening in the area. We are teaching one man named Hugh Lewis. He is a stud, he is 60 yrs old and wears either a gold or white cape to church! SWAG! So far he is solid, but he is still attending a few other churches so we have to get him off those.

We then called our Bishop and Ward Mission leader. Neither one answered. So we just went knocking for a few hours and actually found some awesome people. One named Henry from the Dominican Republic. We have taught him twice now and we’re hoping to get him to Elders Quorum ball on Tuesday night! After that we decided to just go by the Bishop, he was home and we got to chat with him for a little bit. He is a great guy, he filled us in a little on what all is happening and he gave us some people to go by. Our Ward mission leader was out of town Thursday so we met with him Friday! He is awesome! I've never had such an awesome ward mission leader. He is super smart and organized. He is setting up appointments for us and getting members out with us! It's so awesome, I know that because of him we will see a ton of success here! The Ward Mission Leader is the second most important calling in the Ward!

We got to go to both District meetings and meet the Districts. We have some great missionaries! Every companionship besides us and the Sister Training Leaders have a new missionary! I'm loving being here so far, I know we are going to have a blast! I've never been in such a big ward on my mission, at least 200 people at sacrament meeting on average. There are 4 wards here in Iowa City. We also cover Cedar Rapids! My old area! So I am super excited to go there on exchanges, that was definitely one of my favorite areas!

Love you!

Elder Anderson

Elder Housholder and I

Tom Parsons from my old area. And my old comp Elder Obray! He just went home!

Great Day to be Alive!

Hello Family and friends! Another week on the Lord’s errand!

So this week we had all the return appointments from the week before with all the new people we found. It started on Tuesday and I was on Exchanges with Elder Clark in our area! We had some great lessons that day and found a cool dude named Hasan from Bosnia with a sweet accent!

Wednesday we had fun with the Raccoon River District meeting and more good lessons, and a dinner with an awesome family in the branch! Thursday we had District Council in Osceola for the Lenox District. Afterwards my companion and I, The Lenox Elders, the Osceola Sisters, and the Sister training leaders all hit Osceolas area hard! I went with Elder Hebbert who is serving in Lenox right now. We had a great time and found a man that is SUPER legit and prepared. He came out and said "I’m not a mormon, and I’m not going to be one!" I told him that our message isn't only to invite him to our church, but to strengthen people's Faith on our Savior Jesus Christ. He then said do you guys want a drink? Come on in! So we went in and he sat us down at the kitchen table he had 3 great kids. Then he heated up a Chicken pot pie and Apple pie with ice cream for us! What a guy! We had a great conversation and he didn't have much of a view about who Mormons really were. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he will definitely read it. I was sad he isn't in our area! He is super cool! Hopefully the sisters can keep teaching him!

Friday we were in Lenox, I was still with Elder Hebbert. I got to see my man DJ Steele and his wife Tandy! I sure miss them! They went to church for the first time a few weeks ago and they really liked it! DJ was supposed to have me some ribs for dinner when I got there but he ended up having to work late. So he cooked ribs all night and gave them to us in the morning and they were Awesome! I visited a few more people and got lots of lessons set up for them. Then, Elder Hebbert and I went knocking again and we just kept getting let in and people feeding us and giving us drinks and inviting us over for steak. So it was awesome, I wish everyday was like that! Saturday we got to play a little Ultimate Frisbee with a group of guys from another church. We have been meeting with a guy from their church. Sunday was tough again because everyone we’re teaching falls off right when we try to get them to church.

The work is awesome even tho it is tough. But I am so grateful for all the experiences we have. SO many of them will help us for the rest of our lives. God has put me on the perfect mission. He has thrown things at me that needed to be thrown at me. Every hard thing on my mission has been a blessing because I see what I needed to learn. I am Grateful for it!

Transfers are this week!

Love you all! 

                     Elder Anderson

After a spanish lesson with a spanish member in Osceola

Road kill

Goals

Sorry I didn't send anything last week. We had no time to email. We went down to Mt Pisgah for P day and took a tour! It is a really cool and beautiful area! Learned some of the church history for that area. So for last week we had a lot of exchanges and lots of knocking and lessons.

This week we had Zone Conference in Des Moines. A lot of friends from the mission are going home this transfer so they gave there departing testimony. It was so weird, I have served around all of them for pretty much my whole mission so it feels like I should be going home with them. Most of my mission friends are leaving me! haha It will be weird to not have them out here.

Other than that we didn't have any exchanges this week so we were able to work our area hard! We set a big goal to get 20 New people to teach this week. I've never gotten that many. But we let it motivate us all week and we knocked doors pretty much all week long! And Yesterday evening we had about 2 hours left in the week to find 5 more. We were praying hard and we ended up knocking on the door of a family of 3 and we started talking to them and their cat got ran over the night before so they were mourning over that. But they all became new people to teach and they are so awesome! My companion said we would only hit 19, but I said no! We then found 2 other people so we hit 20 exactly! Now this next week we are hoping to work with all the people we have and get them all to church! I'm super excited for this week! We have so many lessons scheduled!

I also got to interview someone for Baptism. It was so cool, he is from Liberia and graduated highschool here a couple of years ago. He is a stud and should be a missionary! He is getting baptized this weekend! We also played more tennis and watched all the hot air balloons! There was A TON! It’s like a national balloon festival they hold here every year!

Love you!
Elder Anderson

The Zone!

Elder Fox, Elder Barrett, Elder Lovin and I. They all go home next week!

Morning view! Balloons and cheerios!

Mt Pisgah!