Another Week!

Monday: Balled hard at the YMCA. Then worked out at the zone leaders new place and I ran a few miles with a full sauna suit! I've never sweated so much in my life.

Tuesday: A normal Tuesday of doing service at the Food Pantry and having dinner with a member!

Wednesday: We tried by a lot of potentials and didn't get much luck. We then we had a lesson with Ethan and we went over the Baptismal Interview Questions and taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it went well. It's hard to get him to pay attention but it went good and he is getting baptized this Saturday, so we’re super pumped for that! Later on Wednesday night we went knocking and knocked on this old man’s door. He hates Mormons and we got into a somewhat heated discussion but not really. He said tons of false things about our church like he thought we worshipped Joseph Smith and he's mad that we don't have crosses on our churches. I thought I did a good job on explaining everything to him and he just thought I was lying. And then he said " Don’t ever come back!' and " you're not gonna be saved" over and over. I just kept smiling at him and walked away! I honestly love explaining our church to people like that because they just have so much false doctrine. My comp hates it and gets super mad so I have to calm him down haha.

Thursday: We went to Quincy and had Zone Training meeting and it was great! After we went to Buffalo Wild Wings like always! haha I love that place!

Friday: We went on Exchanges with Elder McGiven and Elder Miller, we had a lot of fun with them! That night we went to the Shethi’s for dinner and had some good curry!

Saturday morning we went to the Shethi’s again for breakfast and had our giant omelette. I don’t remember what else we did that day haha.

Sunday was good, it was great to go to church and re fuel on the spirit! Shawn came and after we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we got Invited to go to dinner and a study with a bunch of college kids or newly weds and that was fun. Their all from some christian church. Hopefully we Baptize them all. lol

It’s been a great week, me and Elder Youngstrom are doing great! I hope you all have a great week!​

Love, Elder Anderson

The Zone

Transfers

This week has been awesome! We have been super busy!

Monday wasn't P day but we still emailed. Then on Tuesday we kinda went around and Elder Roskelley was saying goodbye to people because we got our transfer calls and I am staying in Hannibal. Elder Roskelley is going to Iowa City to serve in the YSA ward. He was way pumped! So on Wednesday we went to the Temple and did a session. It was awesome! I love going up to Nauvoo! Thursday we went to Quincy with our Branch mission leader. He dropped me off and Elder Roskelley went to Iowa City for transfers. So we went on exchanges for bit while we waited for our new companions! Then they rolled up around 1 and we all went to B-Dubs for lunch! I'm serving with Elder Youngstrom! He's different and kinda weird and awkward but we are gonna work hard together this transfer and learn a lot! I'm excited!  

We had to stay the night in Quincy because we went back to Hannibal but I forgot the keys to the car, so we went back to Quincy and helped the Zone leaders move to there new apartment. We stayed all day Friday helping them and stayed the night again. We got back to Hannibal early Saturday morning and went straight to the Shethi’s for a big breakfast! That's how we break in the new guys! My first day we went straight to the Shethi’s for Thanksgiving dinner. haha They make great food! Then I showed him all around Hannibal.

We also met with Reid and Shelby again! We had dinner with them and went over the Plan of Salvation. They have so many questions and I think we answered them pretty good, but it's awesome because I learn so much from going over there too!

Yesterday was Stake Conference, we are in the Nauvoo Stake so they had it up in Nauvoo, but they broadcast it to our church. President Badger spoke and Elder Joseph Satoti from the 70! It was great! Our Investigator Shawn was there and we taught him the Plan of Salvation and it was awesome!

It's been an awesome week! I am loving the change and I have already learned so much!! I have been in the lead with pretty much everything lately and I am learning so much from it! My comp is kinda quiet in lessons so I am the main talker. I am learning sooo much and can’t wait to learn so much more this transfer!

Love,

Elder Anderson

New Comp Elder Youngstrom from Idaho Falls, Idaho

Dope Hannibal sign

Mark Twain

The Beautiful Nauvoo Temple

100 Days on the Mission

Pretty good week this week. We had some fun, and had a lot of success. I don't remember much tho so idk how long this will be haha.

We had a great District meeting this week about being Sanctified and Developing your Vision. It was great! We went on a short Exchange with the Zone Leaders and I learned a lot. On Saturday we went knocking on a street a lady told us not to go to because it was to dangerous, but we actually found some awesome people. We were knocking and a guy from across the street came out and asked us if we had had dinner yet, and we said no. So we went to his apartment and him and his wife had just gotten married back in July and they are both in their early 20's. At first I thought it was a joke and he was a Returned Missionary and everything, cause they looked like a young couple at BYU, haha but it wasn't a joke. They're just super cool and they go to a small Christian Church, they both Minored in Bible study at the college here. They had a lot of questions and they might be a hard sell but it will be fun working with them. And he invited us to go play ball at the college so we did. He has a ton of cool friends and some were interested, so we got some potentials from that.

Yesterday I finally gave my talk in church and I think it went pretty well! I spoke on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They asked me to speak for 15 minutes and I think I spoke for exactly 15 minutes haha. I had been praying a lot to have the spirit with me when I speak and I definitely did, it went great.

Things are going good out here, we find out about transfers on Tuesday. My comp totally thinks he is leaving and he most likely will and I will probably stay. I really want to stay too, I'm praying hard that I get a good companion! I hope you all have a great week this week!

Love,

Elder Anderson

Serving at the food pantry with Elder Roskelly

3 Months

Hello everyone!

Another week in the mission field! I hit my 3 month mark! Time flies out here.  Kinda a normal week.

Monday: Balled at the YMCA and went to FHE at our Recent Converts house and had a good time there.  

Tuesday:  We got a media referral so we went and taught him the Restoration, he accepted to be baptized. Then we taught Shawn about the BOM. It went well and his mom was there at the beginning and she had a lot of questions because she was curious about what her son was getting into. She had heard a lot of false things about our church so we cleared all that up. Then we went to the Food Pantry and did service and got some food. We had a dinner and after that we went to Quincy to start our exchanges with Elder Fox and McGiven.

Wednesday: We had exchanges and I went with Elder McGiven and had a good time. He is from Orem and went to Utah state for a year and played football. He's really cool. We had to end exchanges early because we were leaving to Burlington, Iowa to stay the night because we had Zone Conference the next day in Iowa City so we needed to be closer. There was 21 elders that stayed there that night in a little apartment! It was nuts! We all balled that night and that was way fun!

Thursday: Zone conference was alright. After zone conference we went to Texas Roadhouse! We had to stay in Burlington again.

Friday: We left early and when we got back we went to village inn! Then we studied together in Quincy and went to Golden Corral then bounced back to Hannibal! So pretty much I spent all my money this week haha

Saturday: Was kinda a rough and long day. We ate our huge egg omelets like we do every Saturday and the Shethis. We went to our Investigator Chads house and pretty much told him we aren't coming anymore, because my comp has been teaching him since August and he hasn't really progressed much at all, and he drinks coffee while we talk to him! haha

Sunday was great! I had a great fast and a great time at church! I LOVE CHURCH! haha The spirit is always so sweet! And being able to partake of the sacrament always makes me feel good! I got to ordain Terry to the Priesthood! It was my first blessing and I was pretty nervous but it went great! The spirit just took over. Plus Shawn came to Church! He walked to church even tho he was way sick!

Well it was a pretty good week!

Transfers are next week, so I am senior Companion all week. So I have been driving and our little box thing called Tiwi that yells at us when we speed or drive aggressively is soooo annoying! I'm gonna rip it out one of these times haha! Well I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Anderson

The Mississippi River

Squad

Another Week

Hello!

This week we had a Missionary Broadcast and it was great! I learned a lot. They changed up our schedule and key indicators. They made our schedule really flexible, so pretty much we can choose when we study, and we only get a half hour for lunch now when normally it’s and hour. We only have 4 Key Indicators now, that's kinda nice. My comp is always stressing about numbers for some reason so hopefully this will be good.

Thursday was a weird day. We were doing every thing like we normally do, but we didn't have any lessons and every house we knocked on was empty. No one was home!  Friday we were knocking and an old lady came out and said "Oh hello! Come in"  We thought it was weird but we quickly realized that she didn't know who we were! She thought we were her twin grand kids. When we told her we were there missionaries she thought we were messing with her. Me and my comp were freaking out! But eventually she believed us I guess haha. We talked to her for awhile and she said she is 96! And she was getting around just fine! haha Then we taught Terry and Ethan again and they are doing great!

Saturday we went to Chad’s house. The guy with one leg and lives in a nasty house. Anyways. My comp has been meeting with him every week since August! I'm getting tired of him because he doesn't keep any commitments and drinks coffee and tea when we’re there. He says he is trying so hard to stop. But on Saturday we told him we can’t keep meeting with him if he won’t keep his commitments. He sometimes gets offended when we talk like that and says he feels cornered. It's weird because we are his only friends so he doesn't want to lose us. Haha

Saturday night we were knocking and a guy opened the door and he looked familiar. Then we remembered him from another area. He said he was at his Grandma’s last time and at his sister's today. Last time he said his grandma would be interested, so we were gonna come back. But this time he said his grandma had recently died. So we tried to comfort him and tell him he would see her again. He let us in and we taught him the Restoration, the spirit was crazy strong, and he started to cry. He told us he knew his grandma had sent us. Elder Roskelley started to cry too. But I didn't because I'm a man! haha jk My eyes were a little wet. Then he said the prayer for us and started crying again! We invited him to church and he said he might be able to make it, but he would have to walk because he doesn't own a car. It was an awesome experience!

On Sunday we were driving to Church and we saw a guy walking up the street and as we passed we saw that it was Shawn!! The guy who's grandma just died. It was 30 degrees and he was walking! We wanted to pick him up but we aren't allowed to! So we were pumped. Then we got to church and he never showed up! We were so bummed, we figured he went to the wrong church because there are a lot of other churches on the way. We will get him there next week!

Last night an older couple probably in there 60's let us in and gave us dinner and everything! They are catholic and his sister is mormon in Indiana and her son served a mission! So they took some pictures and sent them to them. They said we’re always welcome and said to give them a call if we ever need dinner! That was awesome!

Well that's about it!  Sorry it's so long again haha.

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Anderson

I heard last weeks pics didn't get out so here they are:

Squad pic

The Equinox looking good

pic for our movie

another pic for our movie, lol

Toledo Lane

Hello Everyone!

We had an awesome week this week! On Monday we stayed up in Quincy because we had District Meeting and Interviews with our Mission President the next morning. So that was fun and Elder Madsen cut my hair for the first time since the MTC. It was getting pretty long haha. District Meeting and Interviews went great!  

Then Wednesday morning we went to Quincy again for Exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Madson and we taught a couple the Restoration and made them new investigators. Then we had lunch and had Knocked on 3 doors when our Mission President called us and told us to drive to Nauvoo to get our District leader a Package. So we were like ROAD TRIP! It’s only an hour away but we had fun. haha The rest of the night was fun and we found some cool people. The next morning we had to go to Kirksville with them because Elder Anitok needed a bed frame and some other stuff that he left in his last area and someone was bringing them to Kirksville and Kirksville is about 2 hours away. So we get there and they didn't even have his stuff, all they had was a football and a bag of a few things. But they took us out to lunch. Then we left and they let me drive!! The first time in over 2 and a half months, you can only guess what happened. haha

We were on our way home and I wasn't paying attention to the GPS so I missed a turn and the GPS recalculated and made me take a dirt road to get back to the other road. It has been raining a lot here so the road was really muddy and looked like a lot of fun! But it got worse and worse, and eventually we slid off into a corn field! And the mud was really deep! We got stuck, we tried and tried to get out but it only got worse. We called a ton of people, tow trucks, wreckers, members, everyone but no one could help us. After a few hours we found someone that could come pick us up and we were covered in mud, we played football in the mud cause that's all we could do haha. We walked back to the main road and one guy stopped and said " It’s not everyday you see a bunch of guys like you playing football in the road in the middle of nowhere!" haha We laughed, then he offered us a beer and left. Another guy stopped and said the same thing, then said he could get us out. But I knew he couldn't, even in his F-350.  We got in and we went to see the car and he almost got stuck, luckily he had a big tractor at his house just down the street. So we went and got it and it pulled us right out! haha it was awesome! The road we got stuck on was called Toledo lane. We liked it and said they should make a movie ​​of what happened today and name it Toledo Lane haha! We got a bunch of videos and pictures! We got stuck at around 1:30 and got out around 6. We got home late so we stayed another night in Quincy. So that was a great memory made. haha The guy that helped us thought it was weird how we were all laughing about it and smiling all the time. Haha We had fun!

On Saturday we got to go help a guy that is moving into our branch, he lives clear out in the boonies on a farm he just bought. He is a really cool guy and reminds me of people back home. He is getting mules, goats, donkeys, and chickens so we helped him fix up all the fences so he could have them. That was way fun! He says he loves having the Elders over and doing stuff with them. He is gonna take us to come cool caves sometime soon! Well it’s been an awesome week. Sorry this is so long haha

I hope you all have a great week!​​

Love, Elder Anderson

Sweet Week!

Hello Everyone,

Nothing too crazy this week. Tuesday we talked to a guy who's uncle told him he would live forever, and his uncle thought he would live forever too, but he died a couple months ago. He thinks that everyone that has died was killed by Satan or Satan tricked them into death. Idk hes crazy. We went on Exchanges again in Quincy on Wednesday and that was fun! On Thursday we had Zone training meeting, those are always great meetings. Me and a few other Elders from the District sang for the spiritual music note. It was pretty bad we didn't sound good haha!  

We got a few new Investigators this week, one of them is Hindu and her boyfriend is on a mission in Idaho. She was over at her boyfriend's family's house when we were there for dinner and we taught her the first lesson. It was kinda weird because it's hard to teach someone who has never been a christian. Since pretty much everyone we teach is apart of another church or has been so they all can understand it better. We don't know how much of it she got but we tried to break it down. It helps that she is good friends with a member family so she can ask them questions.

Then we got an older couple named Johnny and Kathy probably in there 60's and we met them at the food pantry. We have tried to set something up for while and finally we got in one night and had an awesome lesson with them. The spirit was strong and John liked what we were saying and he said "you would have to be a fool to not get baptized if you new it was true." haha They said they really liked the lesson so I hope we can meet with them again soon. We also talked to 3 younger guys probably in the 20's and we gave them the first lesson on the front porch while they were all smoking, and it was freezing. They said they liked the lesson and would get baptized if they came to know it was true, I hope we can set something up with them soon.

I lucked out big time again on giving a talk in sacrament, there was supposed to be a big ice storm here for the past few days but it has just been raining, it’s too warm. But they canceled church anyways so I didn't have to talk! haha low key I was praying they would cancel! Jk I love church but I don't like giving talks. But now I have two talks written that I can give the next time they need me to talk.

Last night we were knocking and literally everyone had the Green Bay game on and everyone was drunk.  They would come to the door then say the games on and close the door. Or there would be an old man that's super drunk and not have a shirt on and say something inappropriate and slam the door! We got all kinds of stuff last night! haha I found it super funny! So I know that green bay won in overtime with a last second kick just from getting an update at every door.

Pretty great week! Have a sweet week everyone!

Love,

Elder Anderson

Zone Training Meeting

This is where the LDS pioneers crossed the Mississippi River in Quincy

Some weird legs sitting on someones fence! Lol

Transfer Week

Hello everyone!

Another week! Time flies! It was a great week tho!

We got our transfer calls on Tuesday and we are both staying. 2 Elders in Quincy got transferred after just 6 weeks, I was happy. So we got 3 new Elders and they are awesome! Ones from Hawaii and two are from Orem. They are all so funny. We have an awesome district, this is gonna be a great transfer!  

On P-day we got to go to the temple because we had P day on Wednesday. The temple was open because it’s closed on Mondays (our normal P day). It was AWESOME! That Temple is so beautiful inside and out! They have some super cool historical stuff in the temple. We also got to see where Joseph Smith is buried, Hyrum, and Emma. Super cool!

We woke up to a little bit of snow on Thursday so we went out and shoveled the whole neighborhood! We also shoveled the church. We went to a few lessons and knocked on a lot of doors. We met some nice people! We visited Terry all week this week and Saturday was the big day! The Baptism went great! Terry loved it! It was awesome experiencing my first baptism! Then on Sunday Terry got confirmed and next Sunday I have the opportunity to ordain him the Aaronic Priesthood!

We got a few new Investigators this week.We hope we can get in contact with them and be able to get them on date and get them progressing! Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Anderson

Terry's Baptism

Our District!

At the Nauvoo Temple!

The graves of Joseph & Emma Smith and Joseph's brother Hyrum Smith

Looking out towards the Mississippi River

Running to the cars, it was like 5 degrees!

Happy New Year! 2017! 2 Months Down!

Happy New Year Everyone!

We have been crazy busy the last few weeks with a ton of meetings and all the holidays and what not. It's all a big blur now. My comp is a terrible driver and we have almost died like 10 times. We’re gonna get in a crash soon haha.

This week we had some awesome nerf wars in the church, I’ll send some sweet pics that I got. Tuesday we went to Sherri and Jerri’s new house. They live about 25 minutes away now and they bought a good size house, but it is sooo disgusting. A bunch of meth heads were living there before them and it smells like poop.  We tried cleaning it up for awhile but it’s hard because we’re cleaning things that need to be ripped out and thrown away! haha They have a kid who is about 8 or 9 and a new born baby, so it’s not gonna be a good living place for them or anyone. I hope they get it nice in there but I don’t think they will, their kinda crazy.  

Wednesday we had District meeting and we all bore our testimonies because transfers are this week. The spirit was super strong and it was awesome! Then we went and got our Asus Zen Watches, they’re super sick! We then went home and taught my man Terry. He is getting baptized this Saturday. I am super excited for him!  Pray for him because I'm sure Satan is gonna work on him this week.

We went on Exchanges and I went with the District Leader, Elder Crandall. He is from Springville so that’s cool.  He is a good guy but he completely changes when he starts talking to an investigator or on someone’s porch.  He completely changes his voice and it’s really weird, I like to just be myself because I don’t want people thinking that the missionaries aren’t normal. Anyways it was fun and I learned a lot!  

New Years Eve was fun. We couldn’t go knocking so we went to Quincy and played basketball and went to B-Dubs for lunch. Elder Madsen the zone leader had to pay for my meal because I made a one handed, facing the opposite way, left handed shot from the opposite free throw line, my first try!  haha B-Dubs is great! Then we went home and got picked up from a member cause our cars were grounded. We went to their house and played games and watched the testaments and ate a lot of food.  

That night I finished preparing my talk, they forgot to ask for speakers so it was gonna be me and the second counselor. I was told to prepare about 25 minutes. I’ve only talked twice in my life and the longest was maybe 15 minutes, but I was feeling confident. Then we went to church and right when we walked in they said I wouldn’t be speaking because we were getting a new Branch Presidency. It was a super scattered sacrament meeting. But the Branch President got tired and needed to be done I guess, he has only been in for about 2 years.  

Anyways it was a good week! Today Isn't P day for us because of transfers, P day is on Wednesday but they said to still email today, so that means we get more time on P day. Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Anderson

My District

Nerf wars!

My Zone

Merry Christmas!

Cool farm picture

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

This week we had a lot planned. Every P day we ball at the YMCA for free because the guy that owns it likes the elders or something, I don't think he is Mormon. It’s just like Provo Rec. We ball with a bunch of guys that play there so it’s super fun! Then on Wednesday we went up to Iowa City for New Trainer/Trainee meeting. It’s about a 2 and a half hour drive. It was a great meeting, I also had to give a short talk. It went ok haha.  

Thursday we taught Chad, he is Probably about 30 years old, he only has one leg and doesn't ever leave his house. He is progressing slowly, we extended another baptism date to him but he doesn't see why he has to give up coffee and tea. So pray for him. Then we knocked for a few hours, then went to dinner at the Cooks.  They are an awesome family, totally normal and they are soooo funny!! They are loaded, they live in a castle! There house is sooo nice and sooo big. We ate some great food and had a great time!  

Friday we had Zone training meeting where the Zone leaders and Sister training leaders gave their reports on President and Sister Badgers training and it was so good. The spirit was super strong! Then we all went to a good buffet afterwards.

Saturday, Christmas Eve, we were told not to knock and to only go to scheduled appointments and no one had any so we went shopping and played ball at the YMCA. Me and the Zone leaders all bought the same smartwatch at Best Buy. We had to order them so they will be here this week. We’re Excited!  

Yesterday, Christmas! I woke up and ate some disgusting pancakes that my comp made. haha I told him they were good but they were really bad! Then we opened our presents. We got some sick ties and socks and warm clothes. We spent the whole day at a members playing games and eating dinner and skyping!! It was great to skype home! Super cool/weird having Jessica on the other end of the Christmas Skype call.  

Pretty great week this week. The weather has been weird. A week ago it was -4 and today its almost 60 so I broke out the short sleeves!

Have a great week everyone.

Love, Elder Anderson

Nauvoo

Another week down! Time flies as a missionary. We had a good week this week!  

Tuesday was normal and we went to the Food Pantry and did service and got a ton of food! Then Wednesday we knocked on doors and taught some lessons. We got fed a big lunch and a big dinner. I was soooo stuffed! That night we went to Quincy and stayed the night on exchanges, it was great. I went with Elder Fox and it was nice because we have a ton in common, I hope me and him are companions eventually. It was a great day, we knocked and taught a lesson to a man that says he wants to get baptized and he is progressing a lot!  

Thursday we had Zone Conference so we stayed another night in Quincy. Then woke up early and went to Nauvoo, we had Zone Conference right by the beautiful Nauvoo Temple! So we got to hear President and Sister Badger talk and the AP’s, it was a great meeting! Then we all did our funny district skits. It was great! Then we went back to Quincy and had dinner at a mexican restaurant and I got a California Burrito and it was HUGE, but I still pounded it!

We taught Terry and he is still doing really good, he hasn't smoked for a long time and he is switching to 0 nicotine vape now. We taught him the Stop Smoking Workshop and it’s a program that will help him stop smoking. He’s doing great!

It’s been pretty cold here, yesterday it got to -4 degrees and they had shortened church to just one hour because of the weather. When we got there we found that the heater had broke so it was about 40 degrees in the chapel so we all sat there and froze!  Haha and we were gonna teach seminary this morning but they canceled school for some reason. They think it’s too cold to go to school! I wish they would do that in Utah! They also canceled the Christmas Party because of the cold, there's not even really any snow just some ice!  

Anyways it was a great week and we found some new investigators, hopefully they can progress!

I love you all!  Have a great week! Also the Mississippi is frozen and looks sweet, I’ll send pics next week.

Love,

Elder Anderson

A picture I took of the Nauvoo Temple

Another Week in Hannibal

Hello family and friends!

I think we had a pretty normal week! We found a few new investigators while knocking and one of them is wanting to move to a town called Mexico, Missouri. He has been down there a lot and actually started taking the missionary lessons from the missionaries down there in the St Louis mission. They had him scheduled to be baptized last Saturday but the missionaries got taken out of the Mexico mission for some reason and somehow we just happened to knock on his door here in Hannibal! We talked with him and he didn't know much at all.  We don't know what the other missionaries were teaching, so we are gonna take him through the lessons again and his date is January 7th! And he came to church yesterday, so that was awesome!

We have a few other investigators that we teach and they are hard to teach because they like talking so much! Sometimes we will be at someone's house for 2 hours and only say 10 words! Then on Thursday we taught seminary.  They have about 10 kids that come at 6:30am, it was fun! On Wednesday we had District meeting and then went to TCBY ( The Country's Best Yogurt)  They have a challenge where you have to eat a whole quart of ice cream in 45 minutes, and if you do you get a gift card and they take a picture and put it on the wall.  I ate it in 10 minutes!  It was awesome!  That was my lunch!

That's about it for this week. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Anderson

P.S.

If you want to send me a package, which I know you do! Send it straight to my house:

316 N. Hawkins Ave.

Hannibal, Missouri  63401

A sneak peek of our Christmas card

One Month Down

Hello everyone! My first full week here in Hannibal is done and it was a great week! We got 92 OYM’s (Open your mouth)  So everyone we talk to counts as an OYM. The mission goal is to get 10 OYM’s a day so 70 a week. We have done a lot of tracting this week. We have knocked on a few hundred houses! Some people are cool and tell us to come back. Some are awesome and let us in to share our message. And some come out all happy and then they see we are the missionaries so they just slam the door or slowly close the door as we are still talking haha!  

Monday nights we have family home evening with a member and its great! We have dinner, study the scriptures, play 5 crowns, and eat ice cream!  

Every Tuesday we go do service by doing volunteer work at the food pantry. We help get people their free food, and then when it’s over we get to go around and get our free food. haha its really nice!  Also a nice lady in the branch gives us $20 a week for groceries. So we eat pretty good!  We get fed dinner every tuesday night by a big young family, they have tons of little kids and they always take a picture of me and my companion and send it home to our Mom’s. Every Saturday, members invite us over for breakfast and they make a huge egg omelet. We are always stuffed and have to skip lunch. Then sometimes random families in the branch will sign up to feed us.

We don’t have a ton of investigators right now but I will tell you about a few of them. So one day last week we were led to an old couple’s house named Bobby and Kelly and they let us in and just talked our ears off the whole time. They say they are most likely gonna start going to a baptist church, but they say they will come to ours to try it out. He says how will you know if you don’t try?  So he promised us he will be there one of these weeks. Then we came back and only Kelly was home so we taught her and it was an awesome lesson, she said she had been crying earlier and then we showed up and she just felt so much peace and comfort that she wanted to cry again but a good cry. She said she knows the Book of Mormon is true. So then we told her we would come back when Bobby was there so we did the next day and he said he doesn’t want us in his house anymore but still said he would make it to church soon. We were way bummed, I was way excited to teach them.

We also teach a few people that have some mental issues from hard drugs, we keep teaching them but they aren’t progressing. We teach an awesome guy named Aaron, but he just likes to debate and says he will never get baptized, but he’s way cool so we go over there every now and then to try and soften his heart.

Then we have Sherri and Jerri.  Sherri claims she was baptized when she was 8 but we can’t find her records so we will have to baptize her again if she stops smoking. She says she can’t do it but we will keep helping her.  Jerri is her boyfriend and he is trying to better his life. He stopped doing all of his hard drugs and now just struggles with smoking and chew. They have a son named Ricky who is 7 and we plan to baptize him too, they are all on date for February 4th. They live in a motor home and are trying to get a house or an apartment. Also our branch president wants us to take it slow with them because he thinks they might just be trying to join the church to get welfare, which is something we have to watch for out here.

Everyone go to mormon.org and watch the light the world video!  Its great! I am trying to get better at summarizing my week so my emails aren’t this long haha!

I love you all and have a great week! Elder Anderson

Me and Elder Roskelley down by the river

Our house and car, it finally snowed!

Elder Roskelley at the entrance to our haunted basement =)