Hello everyone sorry it's been a while since you heard from me. My district lucked out and had to wait the whole week for our P day lol. So the first couple days were insane. And not necessarily in a good way. It was such a change from my life of watching Netflix until 4:00 am and sleeping in until noon. But weirdly enough, I love following a schedule. And even though this first week has been a huge change, I have been able to stay focused in all my classes which is crazy because my attention span usually is very small. So that's been a huge blessing that I've already started to see.
So my companion, He's from Brigham City and his name is Taylor (Elder) Johnson. I will admit that when he walked in my first impressions told me we were not going to get along. He's kind of like a not good mix of Uncle Matt and Tanner. And has a higher pitched voice and was super in to drama
and acting in high school. Like he was in 12 productions and took a couple of them to state acting. Seriously could not have been more polar opposite from myself. But I put all that aside and it hasn't bothered me at all! We've been able to accept our differences and help each other learn and grow as missionaries and teach by the spirit. I'll attach pictures of him and my district. And honestly I could not have been more blessed with my district. The first person I met is named Dallin Aldous and he lived in Nampa and went to Vallivue.... crazy. And later we found out one of the other elders (Elder Richardson) in our district is from Rigby... weird. But super cool. And Richardson is probably the funniest guy I've met here! Elder Aldous is probably my best friend friend out here. But I love all my district. There's another Elder from Alberta and he has a low key Canadian accent and says "Eh" a lot and it's really funny. We all started using Canadian accents as a joke. I don't have time to tell
you guys about everyone but they're all amazing people who have amazing testimonies and I look up to each of them a lot! So the whole first week has been a lot of studying how to teach and what to teach to investigators. We have teachers for like 1/4 of the day and then the rest is basically for personal or companion study. A lot different from what I expected. But I love it! Pretty much wake
up, study, eat, study, eat some more, study some more, eat, devotional, sleep, repeat. Our district stays on task and we all love each other and our teachers and it's been going really good! My
testimony has grown so much this week. Oh and the food here is surprisingly good. Not amazing but I'll give it an A for effort. Also yes I have an IPad while I'm here. So I can read everyone's emails all week but can't reply until Wednesday. It's so cool to use gospel library and other church apps that all work together and make my iPad an amazing study tool and just makes everything easier. I was
a little cautious about a bunch of 18 year old guys with iPads but one of our teachers justified it by saying, "If God our Heavenly Father can trust these young elders with the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood.... then I think we can trust them with iPads" hahahaha made me laugh pretty hard.
Couple cool things happened yesterday!!
We went to the referral center and we legit got to call people who requested Bibles or Books of Mormon off of Mormon.org and confirm their address and then kinda try to throw in the Restoration lesson or invite them to order a Book of Mormon along with their Bible and to pray about it to know that it's true. Missionary work in a call center basically hahaha. And it was awesome!! My companion and I called this guy named Nelson Smith who wanted a Bible and I'm nervous to the point of shaking and this guy answers and I told him my name and made sure of his address and what he requested and I immediately noticed this guy is black. And has this deep voice and a thick accent. It was so weird because as soon as I heard his voice I was like happy instead of nervous and then the conversation proceeded and I asked why he reached out to us to order a Bible and he said he likes reading it and learning about how God works and said he had talked to a couple of guys in white shirts about the church so that's why he went to Mormon.org and I'm like, "Thats awesome! So I'm guessing you've heard about the Book of Mormon too right?" And he's like yeah I know that.
And then Invited him to order it too for free and the pray about it and promised that if he did this that he'd come to know of its truth and to feel it. And he's like "Alright then, throw one of those in
there I'll read it". And then I asked if he was okay with the missionaries delivering the books to him and he's like "Yeah and can I call them to set up an appointment"..... I'm like holy crap.... and
then I said that we'd let the missionaries know to call him and set that up and then he was just so grateful and told me happy thanksgiving and told me to tell everyone in the call center to have a
happy thanksgiving! And he was just so chill and nice and had the coolest Detroit accent. My goodness I was so happy after that. Nelson made my day hahahaha. But the day got better.
So we also started teaching TRC investigators and that stands for "Teaching Resource Center" and its basically members and non-members who get paid to act as real life investigators for us. Our first one is Leyla Marin and she is so cool. We started off with the Restoration and she said she felt peaceful afterwards and then we ended the first lesson inviting her to read the Book of Mormon and
pray about it to know its true. And the next day we taught her the Plan of Salvation but before the lesson she said, from her reading she was reassured that God loves her and that he is a fair God. And we were so happy for her and then after we taught the lesson and felt the spirit a lot and did an amazing job of answering her questions, I boldly asked her if she'd follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone who holds the priesthood authority of God. And she was like "Wow that's a big step....." and then smiling she's like, "but yeah I can do that". Wow Amazing thing. Then we bore our testimonies to her and left that lesson so happy. Later that night we had a Devotional and I learned really cool things that helped me so much. First off, Satan wants you to look back and dwindle in depression about he past whil Christ wants you to look forward and see potential. Also, Faith and Fear cannot coexist... coolest quote regarding missionary work I've ever heard. And lastly the Lord qualifies who He calls. Amazing day to say the least. I honestly had been doubting my testimony a little bit but this week and the spirit I've felt and the blessings I've received have put all those doubts out of my mind.
So my companion, He's from Brigham City and his name is Taylor (Elder) Johnson. I will admit that when he walked in my first impressions told me we were not going to get along. He's kind of like a not good mix of Uncle Matt and Tanner. And has a higher pitched voice and was super in to drama
and acting in high school. Like he was in 12 productions and took a couple of them to state acting. Seriously could not have been more polar opposite from myself. But I put all that aside and it hasn't bothered me at all! We've been able to accept our differences and help each other learn and grow as missionaries and teach by the spirit. I'll attach pictures of him and my district. And honestly I could not have been more blessed with my district. The first person I met is named Dallin Aldous and he lived in Nampa and went to Vallivue.... crazy. And later we found out one of the other elders (Elder Richardson) in our district is from Rigby... weird. But super cool. And Richardson is probably the funniest guy I've met here! Elder Aldous is probably my best friend friend out here. But I love all my district. There's another Elder from Alberta and he has a low key Canadian accent and says "Eh" a lot and it's really funny. We all started using Canadian accents as a joke. I don't have time to tell
you guys about everyone but they're all amazing people who have amazing testimonies and I look up to each of them a lot! So the whole first week has been a lot of studying how to teach and what to teach to investigators. We have teachers for like 1/4 of the day and then the rest is basically for personal or companion study. A lot different from what I expected. But I love it! Pretty much wake
up, study, eat, study, eat some more, study some more, eat, devotional, sleep, repeat. Our district stays on task and we all love each other and our teachers and it's been going really good! My
testimony has grown so much this week. Oh and the food here is surprisingly good. Not amazing but I'll give it an A for effort. Also yes I have an IPad while I'm here. So I can read everyone's emails all week but can't reply until Wednesday. It's so cool to use gospel library and other church apps that all work together and make my iPad an amazing study tool and just makes everything easier. I was
a little cautious about a bunch of 18 year old guys with iPads but one of our teachers justified it by saying, "If God our Heavenly Father can trust these young elders with the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood.... then I think we can trust them with iPads" hahahaha made me laugh pretty hard.
Couple cool things happened yesterday!!
We went to the referral center and we legit got to call people who requested Bibles or Books of Mormon off of Mormon.org and confirm their address and then kinda try to throw in the Restoration lesson or invite them to order a Book of Mormon along with their Bible and to pray about it to know that it's true. Missionary work in a call center basically hahaha. And it was awesome!! My companion and I called this guy named Nelson Smith who wanted a Bible and I'm nervous to the point of shaking and this guy answers and I told him my name and made sure of his address and what he requested and I immediately noticed this guy is black. And has this deep voice and a thick accent. It was so weird because as soon as I heard his voice I was like happy instead of nervous and then the conversation proceeded and I asked why he reached out to us to order a Bible and he said he likes reading it and learning about how God works and said he had talked to a couple of guys in white shirts about the church so that's why he went to Mormon.org and I'm like, "Thats awesome! So I'm guessing you've heard about the Book of Mormon too right?" And he's like yeah I know that.
And then Invited him to order it too for free and the pray about it and promised that if he did this that he'd come to know of its truth and to feel it. And he's like "Alright then, throw one of those in
there I'll read it". And then I asked if he was okay with the missionaries delivering the books to him and he's like "Yeah and can I call them to set up an appointment"..... I'm like holy crap.... and
then I said that we'd let the missionaries know to call him and set that up and then he was just so grateful and told me happy thanksgiving and told me to tell everyone in the call center to have a
happy thanksgiving! And he was just so chill and nice and had the coolest Detroit accent. My goodness I was so happy after that. Nelson made my day hahahaha. But the day got better.
So we also started teaching TRC investigators and that stands for "Teaching Resource Center" and its basically members and non-members who get paid to act as real life investigators for us. Our first one is Leyla Marin and she is so cool. We started off with the Restoration and she said she felt peaceful afterwards and then we ended the first lesson inviting her to read the Book of Mormon and
pray about it to know its true. And the next day we taught her the Plan of Salvation but before the lesson she said, from her reading she was reassured that God loves her and that he is a fair God. And we were so happy for her and then after we taught the lesson and felt the spirit a lot and did an amazing job of answering her questions, I boldly asked her if she'd follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone who holds the priesthood authority of God. And she was like "Wow that's a big step....." and then smiling she's like, "but yeah I can do that". Wow Amazing thing. Then we bore our testimonies to her and left that lesson so happy. Later that night we had a Devotional and I learned really cool things that helped me so much. First off, Satan wants you to look back and dwindle in depression about he past whil Christ wants you to look forward and see potential. Also, Faith and Fear cannot coexist... coolest quote regarding missionary work I've ever heard. And lastly the Lord qualifies who He calls. Amazing day to say the least. I honestly had been doubting my testimony a little bit but this week and the spirit I've felt and the blessings I've received have put all those doubts out of my mind.
Anyways I love you all! Feel free to email me throughout the week!
Shout out to all my friends in the mission field! So happy that we're all able to invite people to experience the true, eternal, pure happiness that comes from this gospel! I pray for all of you and hope all is going well! And Mom I love you more!
Shout out to all my friends in the mission field! So happy that we're all able to invite people to experience the true, eternal, pure happiness that comes from this gospel! I pray for all of you and hope all is going well! And Mom I love you more!
Stay tuned.
-Elder Anderson
-Elder Anderson
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| Idaho missionaries unite! |
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| The first companion, Elder Johnson, from Brigham City |
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| The zone. |
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