Transfers!

Hello, I am staying in this area for at least another 6 weeks and my last comp Elder Olsen left after just 6 weeks and he is now in Dubuque, Iowa. I received Elder Frew, he is a very interesting fellow and gets on my nerves sometimes. lol It’s all good though it should be a good transfer, the district is cool. Should have some good ball on P days!

Tuesday we got our Transfer calls while we were at the Food Pantry. I was wanting to stay, I don't know what Elder Olsen was hoping for. But then they said where Elder Olsen was going but we didn't know who he said at the time and Elder Olsen was laughing so hard and looking at me like I’m in trouble for my next transfer. lol I was like oh great! But then I asked him who it was that was getting transferred and it was Elder Olsen so I started laughing at him! haha His new comp is apparently going home this next transfer so he was scared that he was gonna be lazy haha.

Since Wednesday was P day we went to the John Deere Pavilion again! That's a cool place! Then we balled a little but we had a lot of guys that like to play board games so that was really boring.

Thursday Elder Fox and I went on Exchanges while our companions got transferred. Then we got our companions and went to lunch. I let Elder Frew get unpacked while I cleaned the apartment, then we headed out. We taught our Investigator Dawn, she is in her 60s and is pretty cool. She’s interested and even kept our commitment of reading the Introduction to the Book of Mormon. She said she will be at church this week. We’re gonna try and get a member out with us to teach her so she can have friends other than us. Also on Thursday Tom Parsons our Recent Convert called and said he is resigning from the church. He left all the books and pamphlets at the church with a letter to Bishop Johnson, I couldn't believe it! But after talking to him on the phone and visiting him, all he told us is that he thought we were taking things too fast and he was stressing to much and it’s bad for his health. I thought for sure he told his Methodist pastor or something, which we have encouraged him to do but he hasn't. He has been working on getting the Priesthood and the Priesthood in our church is a lot different in others. Because they have to go to schooling to get it and we believe it’s for any male member worthy of it. But Bishop went and talked to him and he told us he was stressing about some misdeeds he had done in his life. So they cleared all that up and Tom took back his books and said he will come to church. So that's good!

Friday was a pretty normal day, just working on finding new investigators. We also got to play some street ball with a bunch of guys. It was a lot of fun, even though they tried playing dirty, I still danced on them and broke some ankles. lolol

Saturday we had D meet and on the way home we got in a crash! We were parked at a red light and truck flew into the car that was parked behind us, causing them to fly into the back of us. No one was hurt, our car wasn't even hurt to bad.

Levi Hamby is leaving on his mission. He is in our ward here, he is a great young kid and is serving in the Las Vegas West Mission. He gave a great Farewell talk, and he will make a great missionary!

Well it’s been a great week! The work has been slow but we’re working hard on working with members more so hopefully we can get some solid referrals this week and find a ton of new investigators! I love you all and have a great week!

Love, Elder Anderson

Elder Frew

Hot & Sweaty!

Transfers are this week! We find out tomorrow. I hope I stay! Tuesday we did service at the Food Pantry again. After that we took studies at the Library out there in Geneseo, then we stayed all day out in Geneseo working. We went to Subway for lunch, we walked in and a guy was like "Wow I just ran into the Elders!" At first we thought he was gonna yell at us or something like some of the mean people we meet out here that hate us. But nope, He said "I’m Bro Swan from Michigan!" Long story short he bought us lunch and we talked for a little while and he is a truck driver that was just passing through. Super cool and a Miracle cause I'm broke! haha That night we had Dinner with our ward mission leader. Afterwards we went and balled at the church for the Wards Tuesday night ball.

Wednesday it was really hot and we were knocking on doors most of the day! I was drenched in sweat all day long, it was bad! But I found an address in my planner and I didn't know what it was, but we went and tried by and the guy wasn't really interested and we were in a sketchy part of town. But after him we decided to knock some of the small apartments by his apartment. We got a few new investigators right off the bat! Then we knocked on a door and the lady was not interested but I offered her a mormon.org card even tho she said "Sure idk what I would do with it" haha. But then her son came out and started talking to us and he said he would come to church. He's Handicapped but he said he would bring his uncle too. So we told him to go get the card from his mom and it has the address on it. So we walked away but then he came running back and told us his mom ripped it up so he needed a new one. We gave it to him and he told us his mom practices Whichen. They do Spells and curses or something like that. He said he has been mistreated most of his life, but he loves Jesus. Then we were sitting in Sunday School and no one came to church even tho so many people said they would! But someone came in and grabbed us and said our Investigators showed up! So we went out and it was him, Daniel and his Uncle Lee! His Uncle is pretty cool, we were able to teach them the Restoration at church and it was awesome!

Then back up to Thursday when half the mission met in Iowa City for a meeting with Elder Keach of the 70. It was awesome and he taught some great things and did mostly a Q and A so that was cool!  

Friday we helped an Investigator from another missionaries area move into our area. We assumed she was just using the missionaries for help because she doesn't seem interested but it was good!

Saturday we spent time going by less actives and members and knocking around their houses. This week was kind of a long one, its getting hot out and the work is rough, but it just makes the success so much better! We were able to find 7 new investigators so I hope we can start working with them this week.

This morning I read in Ether when the Brother of Jared talks to the Lord and instructs him on building the barges, I can't imagine the faith he had. I know that as we strive to strengthen our faith and our testimonies we can be closer to the Lord. I have seen it help me in the work recently as I study the Savior and His life. I encourage you all to do the same and you will be happier! I love you all and God is good!

Love, Elder Anderson

Said goodbye to Elder Anitok, he goes home to Hawaii on Friday!

Blur

Hello everyone! These weeks go by so fast that they’re just blurs! Good thing I write in my journal or else I wouldn't remember anything! Nothing to exciting this week, just normal things happening, lots of knocking and lots of lessons.

Tuesday was normal we went out to Geneseo and did service. I forgot the phone so we couldn't stay out there all day so we came back and worked in East Moline.

Wednesday we had a great day we met with Lee, he just graduated high school and is from Taiwan. He is really cool and loves it when we come over. He hasn't come to church yet but we are working on that. We found 3 new investigators that day, some were super cool people. I hope we can meet with them more this week. None of them made it to church though, but hopefully after we meet with them more they will be more comfortable.

Thursday we had exchanges and they were out of our area. I went with Elder Jenkins and he goes home in a week and a half! He’s from Rexburg, Idaho. It was a fun exchange.  

Friday was good and that evening we went back and talked to Ed, the guy that flagged us down on the street last week. We had dinner with him and then we asked him if he had been reading out of the Book of Mormon. He said no, but he did some research. Which means he got into a ton of anti mormon stuff and he showed us some of it. It was just crazy! haha we tried to clear it up the best we could. But we figured that since he is old and very lonely, that’s the only reason he wanted to talk. We might go by again in a few weeks.

Saturday we helped a lady in the ward move and that went good. We were able to meet with some cool people. We knocked on a former Investigators door and he is super cool and gave us ties. Sundays are always great! I love going and refueling my spirit! We have an awesome Sunday school teacher who always teaches great lessons, usually some great doctrine. Sometimes people almost start arguing haha its pretty cool tho. It’s always a great discussion!

Well I hope you all have an awesome week! Things are going great out here! Choose the Right and study the scriptures! God loves you!

Love,

Elder Anderson

P.S: I was on T.V. the other week for the big service project, pretty sweet! That's the second time on my mission, I guess you could say I'm Famous!

Happy Birthday to me! Sweet 19!

My new haircut

The Mississippi River

Driving fun =)

Sites from around town

7 Months Down!

Monday night we had a BBQ with some members and witnessed a motorcycle accident. The Motorcycle flew into the side of a truck that ran a stop sign. He was on a 2013 Honda Crf250r Enduro no helmet, short sleeves, and shorts. Haha not to smart, but he was ok and it wasn't too bad, he may have broken his leg. Then the guy that ran the stop sign was high and had weed so he got arrested.  

Tuesday we did service at the Food Pantry and spent the rest of the day working in Geneseo. Geneseo is a half hour a way so it’s good to get out there. We did find a new investigator so that was sweet. Wednesday we had District meeting, it went well. Then we went to Pizza Ranch and had some great food. It’s just like Pizza Pie Cafe but they have an Ice Cream machine. After that we helped Sis. Hirst plant some flowers, then she took us out to Whitey’s!  I love Whitey’s! Then we helped Bro. Penfold with his home teaching, and that’s always fun.

Thursday we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders in their area, it was a good time and we found some new investigators. Friday we weekly planned and were finally able to get out and talk to our investigators and go knocking.

Saturday we did service for a Kids Against Hunger service project all day,  it was awesome. I taped the boxes full of food then took them out to the truck all day. hahaha It was fun but I was sweating sooo bad. There was like 1000 people there throughout the day and probably 600 non members so we did it in our proselyting clothes. We set up a table and put BOM’s and pass along cards on it and gave away 7 BOM’s so that was cool.

We didn't get anyone to church yesterday. Had some close calls, we will work on them this week.  

Have a great week everyone!

Love Elder Anderson

No pictures again, sorry next week.

19!

Thank you everyone for all the Birthday wishes! I had a great Birthday. We went on exchanges and I was able to go with Elder Fox. I served around him in my last area, so we had a great time. I bought a big Ice Cream Dairy Queen Cake, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup!  Ahaha Oh man I gained a few pounds from that! It was so good tho! I will send some pictures!

This week we have been working with a lot of people but none of them came to church, we had so many say they would be there. I even talked to one on the phone right before church and they said they would come but never showed. It was sad.

This week we did some service at the food pantry and helped a non member build a retaining wall. We also had Interviews with the Mission President. It’s always great seeing him, he is a great guy! He took us out to lunch after so that was fun!I Also played some more street ball and told them that if I win they have to come to church, I won but none of them came to church.

We had dinner with the Stake President, he is the CEO of Genesis, he has a super nice house. They also gave us a huge Chocolate cake from Costco. It was sooo good. Then we knocked some houses in their neighborhood and it was cool, I love knocking mansions. haha The Mansions and the Ghetto are the best! I’m out of time this week, I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Anderson

I will send pictures next week.

Where Are the Solid People At?

This week we was pretty normal, nothing too crazy happened. Tuesday we went and did service at the Food Pantry in Geneseo then spent the rest of the day out there knocking and trying by Less Actives. We met some cool people.  

Wednesday we had District meeting and that's always fun, the District is awesome. Then there was a big storm, super windy, cloudy, cold, and raining. And of course we didn't have anything to do so we went knocking haha. Everyone was telling us " Were heading for the basement" or " we’re in the basement what do you want?" haha crazy stuff, it was raining so hard. It's always fun in the rain though, sometimes, haha.

Most of the week was spent knocking and trying by people. We dropped a lot of investigators this week because so many aren't progressing and aren't willing to act. So we’re hoping to get more people soon. Trying to find the solid people! Saturday was the day we try'ed by a ton of people and ended up dropping most of them. Then we played some street ball with a ton of kids and it was way fun. I have made a lot of friends from playing street ball. Hopefully some will start coming to church. We talked to Alique this week and he said he would come to church with his mom. So we were excited, but they didn't show up. Good week tho!  Have an awesome week everyone!

Love, Elder Anderson

Transfers!

This week was transfers, I am staying and my Companion Elder Obray left to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I got Elder Olsen on Thursday! He is from Saratoga Springs, Utah and has been on his mission for a year! He is pretty awkward and quiet but that's okay, we will work hard together and hopefully see success!

Tuesday we got our transfer doctrine and then went to the Geneseo food pantry. We’re gonna start doing service there. On our way home we picked up a sick mini pool table that was on the side of the road for garbage, it’s also got air hockey, foosball, chess, etc. So we took it home! Its sick! haha Then Elder Obray spent some time saying goodbye to people and started packing.

Wednesday was P day so we went to the John Deere Museum! It was pretty sweet. Just a bunch of sweet tractors! Then we played a lot of ball and what not. Thursday we dropped off Elder Obray and picked up Elder Olsen! Elder Olsen and I hit the streets right off the bat and found some new Investigators. This week is gonna be a lot of knocking. I wanna get a ton of new investigators because all of ours are falling off, so I wanna get a ton of people to work with this transfer and hopefully see some success at the end! We will see how it goes.

It was so nice being able to skype home yesterday!! Always very bitter sweet! haha but I’m grateful for it! I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Anderson

John Deere Museum

Goodbye Elder Obray

Hello Elder Olsen!

Mothers Day Chat with the Family!

6 Months Down!!

Hit 6 months this week! Crazy, time is flying! This week was good, Tuesday we went on exchanges in our area. The Zone leaders were gonna come to our area but then one of them got called to be AP (Assistant to the President) so only one of the Zone leaders came down and another Elder that is in a Trio. I went with Elder Baxter the Zone leader and we found 4 new Investigators. Hopefully they will stick around and we can help them progress.

Really not too much happened this week. A lot of our Investigators are falling off the deep end. This week we’re gonna try to start fresh, but still keep a couple of the Investigators we have. Were gonna work hard to find those solid Investigators. This week is transfers so we’re hoping we both stay.

Saturday night we did run into some really funny guys, they were having a small house party and they were drinking and smoking. One guy came out and tried to be funny and said "What are you guys selling today?" But then another guy came out and was like go inside guys and he pulled us a side and we both thought he was gonna cuss us out, but he said " I wanna compliment you guys, I know this isn't easy work"  and he went on and on that and it was awesome. They were all holding a beer and smoking but they were cool haha. They were just a bunch of young guys that seemed to have a lot of money. They were super funny and they really liked us.

Oh ya and we went to Whiteys twice this week. Whiteys Ice cream out here is amazing, it is soooo good! We also played some street ball with a bunch of guys and invited them all to come out and play at the church on Tuesday nights. Hopefully they show, we normally get some good competition there. That's about it for this week! I hope you all have an awesome week!

Love, Elder Anderson

Whiteys ice cream

Rejecting Rejection

This week has been nuts!  It literally rained all week! We did a lot of finding and knocking doors with close to 0 success! After last week when we had 3 investigators to church our bishop called us to come over. So we did and he basically gave us a map of places we should be spending our time and it was all richer and nicer areas. Then we went to dinner that night and they said we should be knocking the other side of the river. Which is where it is nicer. I was kind of upset that we heard all that instead of hearing congratulations. But they were still a little proud and they fellowshipped our investigators.

So we started knocking rich areas, which we did all week in the wet and cold weather. We were drenched all day everyday! haha I love knocking the Super Rich areas because you meet a lot of awesome people but they are never down to hear about the Gospel. We find most of the success in the not so rich areas, still really cool people tho.

Well that's about it really. We did teach a few lessons, we taught Kenneth, Angela, and Tonya. Some investigators that we are trying to help progress and come to church. Kenneth came last week but wasn't able to make it this week because he was in Chicago for a wedding. We talked to Alique and he said he wasn't gonna make it this week because he was going to another church or something. Kind of a bummer. Someone showed him some Anti Mormon stuff and he showed it to us and it was nuts! It talked about how there's apparently Lizard creatures walking around by the Temples and how when we die we will be judged by Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith! Hahaha There was a lot of other crazy stuff too, pretty funny. We tried to clear it all up as much as possible. We hope he will continue to want to come to church and meet with us.

Last night was like the light at the end of the tunnel for this week. We knocked on a potentials house that said to come back on a Sunday. And she is really cool, we think she is a single mom with two kids the ages of 6 and 2. The first thing she said was how she was sorry for not coming to church, and we had only talked to her once before. She said she had just gotten back from Chicago so she missed it. But she accepted baptism and said she will come to church next week, and to text her during the week to see if we could visit and teach her more. We left feeling sooo good. It made all the hard work worth it! I am so excited for her!

I hope you all have an awesome week! Oh ya and I hit my 6 month mark tomorrow! Soo crazy! Time is flying! I’m loving it though! Serving the Lord is the best and brings awesome joy!

Love,

Elder Anderson

Sunshine

Man it’s been a great week here!  

This week we worked with the investigators we have. Since we have gotten a lot in the past few weeks so we decided to slow down the finding and work hard on helping the investigators we have found. So we taught a lot of lessons. We have some awesome investigators right now.

One of the new investigators from this week is James and he is a hilarious African American. He is super funny and kept laughing at the things we were teaching but he was very curious about it all. Like when we said Joseph Smith he said "Oh shoot here we go again!" haha and same thing with the Book of Mormon. But he’s awesome and wants us to come back and he wants to come to church. We found him knocking some apartments, and most of the apartments here have a ton of Africans from Togo living in them and they are so awesome! Some of them don’t speak good english but there really cool and funny.

Thursday we Triple Blitzed another area with the Zone leaders. We showed up and they told us me and Elder Obray are staying together while we work on someone else's area. It was really weird why we didn't get to go with someone else, we didn't know the area at all. But we found 3 new investigators for them! And all together we found 15 new investigators for them! It was awesome!

Saturday we did a lot of driving by to try and get people to church. Sunday was awesome! Our church starts at 1 so it gives us time to round up our investigators and get them to church. We had one who could drive himself, his name is Kenneth he’s really cool. Then there is Alique the 19 year old who came last week and liked it, and Alique’s friend Kendrick too. We talked to Kendrick and Alique that morning and they said they would come. But when we came back with a ride for them we couldn’t find them. We were super bummed. But at least we had Kenneth there. Church started and me and Elder Obray were the only speakers so we were up front and I was

blessing the sacrament, so I was on the side. About 10 minutes in Alique and Kendrick walked in! I was so HAPPY, I looked at Elder Obray and we both smiled, haha it was so awesome! Then we gave our talks and I went first. We were told to take about 18 minutes each, and somehow I took 25 minutes. I don’t know how but I did. haha. It was on the Promised Blessings from the Book of Mormon and how to Access them. Our investigators said they liked it and are coming back next week, so thats awesome!

It’s been a great week! I encourage you all to read the Book of Mormon everyday, just like our Prophet told us in his short but sweet talk! And always Quality over Quantity. You can read several chapters a day or several verses and get the same amount out of it. As we take small amounts and ponderize them for the rest of our day we can get a lot out of it! I love you all have a great week!

Elder Anderson

Me and Elder Obray after church

Worlds largest truck stop for lunch

Utah Ave

We dem bois

What a Week!

This week was great! We were very busy!

Monday night we had dinner with a recent convert and he always makes a ton of food, we always go over and he has like 3 plates full for each of us! I'm gonna get fat! haha But it’s always good.

Tuesday we triple blitzed an area so there were two companionships that came to one area and worked hard to find New Investigators. I was put in a trio so it was definitely different having 3 of us but it was fun. We taught a few lessons and out of the 3 companionships blitzing that area we found about 15 new investigators! It was awesome! Wednesday we were able to find a few new Investigators in our area.

We went by our Investigator Alique’s and someone from the house next door came out and we started talking to him and he said he had been wondering about where he’s going, why he’s here, and what church he should start going to. So it was awesome and we were able to teach him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He seemed to like it!

Thursday we had interviews with our Mission President and they went good! It’s always good to see him and his wife, they are such great people! After that we stopped by two potentials and they became new investigators they seemed to like it. One was a referral from the Hermanas and he is super cool and seems to like it a lot! On Friday we were knocking and ran into an old guy doing yard work and we thought he was gonna be mean cause he shook his head and said I don’t want anything. But then we got talking and he is super funny and he likes us a lot and we told him we would come back and help him with his yard work, and he would just laugh haha. Super cool old guy! Then we went to a Methodist church that night because a recent convert was playing the piano there, it was really different. It only lasted about 45 minutes and they just had different people read some scripture and then put out a candle.

Yesterday Alique invited us to his church so we said we would come if he came to ours, and he said deal! So he goes to the Mt Zion Missionary baptist church, or something like that. Man it was an awesome experience! We were the only white people there and they were all dressed real fancy and the ladies had the big hats on.  They had a play of Jesus on the cross and dancers performing and the choir was super loud and there were only like 10 people in it. They also had an awesome dude playing the keyboard and another guy on the drums! They were all getting up singing along saying "Hallelujah!" and "Amen!!". The Pastors were getting up and dancing around, man I got up too and started singing and dancing! Haha it was so cool, I have never been to anything like that! Then the pastor got up and started talking about some miracles that have happened in his life and the keyboard and drums were still going and as the story built up so did the drums and keyboard and he started talking louder and everyone started standing up yelling "Amen!" Hallelujah". People were crying and man it was something else but I loved it haha

It’s been an awesome week here in Illinois and I'm excited for this week. We have some awesome lessons set up for tonight that I'm excited for! I love you all and hope you have an awesome week!

Love, Elder Anderson

PS: I'll send pictures next week.

Pretty Good Week Here in Moline!

On Mondays we have Zone P day so the whole zone gets together and plays games, so that's pretty cool. Nothing too exciting this week, we have been working hard to find new investigators. We have some cool investigators and they all said they would come to church but none of them showed up, so that was a bummer! We taught Ashish and Niqita at the church and showed them the finding faith in Jesus Christ video. They are Hindu so it’s different teaching them. They have been investigators for awhile now and either aren't progressing or progressing super slow. They told us they would come to church but didn't.

Another Investigator that they have had here for awhile is Ben Holmes. He’s about 30 years old and lives in a care center because he had a disease in his foot or something, so they cut off all of his toes and he can’t get in water until it heals. So we are waiting for it to heal so he can get baptized. But he still needs to start coming to church and gain a testimony.

The Hermanas found a nice lady and her son and they taught them the Restoration. Then they found out that they live in our area so they gave them to us. We had a great lesson on the Book of Mormon with the Hermanas there. We set up another appointment with them and it fell through and they were supposed to come to church but didn't make it.

We also got an awesome referral from a member here. The ward here is a lot different than back in Hannibal. There's not as much love for the missionaries for some reason, we only have about 4 member dinners this month. So we are working on getting member trust. We both bore our testimonies yesterday and a few people came and talked to us after so I got to know some more people that way, so hopefully the ward will pick up here soon. One awesome member gave us a referral that he found while out doing home teaching. She is a young mom that has two kids. She just got out of the army and is super cool and super open and interested. We taught her about the Restoration and she liked it. She loved the fact that there's a prophet on the earth today. We have an appointment with her on Wednesday!

We also found an investigator who looks like Wiz Khalifa! haha Hopefully we can meet with him soon. We got to ball on the streets with some guys playing street ball! We beat them pretty bad! But it was tough in my church clothes haha!  We invited them all to come play with us on Tuesday nights because that’s when a bunch of the guys from the ward get together and ball! Hopefully they show! They said they need their revenge! haha

It’s been a great week here! Me and my new companion are doing great! We are trying our best to find ways to pick this area up. I love you all and hope you have an awesome week!

Love, Elder Anderson

Me & my new companion Elder Obray

5 Months Out Already!

This week was super busy, last Monday we went on exchanges so that I could be with Elder Anitok for a day haha. We both got transferred to different areas so we most likely will only see each other one more time before he goes home in June. So exchanges were fun. Then when we went back to Hannibal I said my goodbyes to as many people as possible, I think I said goodbye to everyone. It was hard saying goodbye I wish I could have stayed one more transfer but that’s ok I like it here in Moline. It’s gonna take some adjusting but hopefully I get used to it soon.  

Wednesday we went to the Temple and did a session and it was great! I love how peaceful it is in there, it is sooo beautiful. We also took a tour of Carthage Jail, it was awesome! An older Sister Missionary took us on the tour and it was sooo cool! The spirit was strong also! Then we went back to Hannibal and I packed up my stuff as fast as possible and went to Quincy to spend the night because I was leaving with a member in Quincy in the morning.  

So Thursday morning we went to Iowa City and I switched my luggage over to the other car with a member from Moline and we were on our way! My new Companion is Elder Obray, he is from Layton, Utah, he has been out for about 8 months. He also just finished serving with Elder Blau my old MTC companion haha. So we joke around about him sometimes. But it’s all going good out here, just trying to adjust! The area is doing alright but we’re gonna try and get a bunch of new investigators as soon as possible. So I hope we can see a lot of success this transfer.  

General Conference was great! There was a lot of good talks! The thing that stuck out to me was how we need to act on spiritual promptings the first time. I believe someone said that Joseph Smith said that 9 out of 10 times the first prompting is the spirit! So always act on your promptings the first time no matter how hard it is. We watched General Conference at the Stake Center on Saturday. Then Yesterday we watched the morning session at a nice old ladies house from the ward. Then the afternoon session at another members and they had a super nice house and they fed us an awesome meal after. Some Tri tip and some great mashed potatoes! That’s about it for this week! I love you all!  Have a great week!

Love, Elder Anderson

Carthage Jail

Saying Goodbye to Terry and Ethen

Goodbye to the Cooke family

Goodbye to the Shethis

Goodbye to the Voelkel's