Christmas Skype

No letter this week, but we did get to Skype for a while on Christmas Day! Elder Anderson's image was a bit pixelated, but his voice came through loud and clear. It was great to see him and talk to him. It was the highlight of the Christmas Season for us! Here is some footage from the Skype:

Well here we are at Christmas.

It´s already Christmas, wow, where has the time gone!!!! It´s projected to be 97 degrees on Christmas.. my first ever like that.

This week was a pretty normal week, nothing really spectacular happened. We are still working and doing our best. But we did uncover a few things about the history of the branch and why it is kind of struggling. So, people have gone pretty inactive because of the branch president, because he like hardly ever does anything, which is a problem. And on Sundays the ward would probably fall apart if the missionaries weren´t there. for example, yesterday at church. I played the organ for the hymns. We blessed the sacrament. We gave talks. We even did a musical number Noche de Luz (silent night) I played the piano and E Lybbert sang. So this week we are focusing on meeting with members to talk to them specifically about their importance in contributing to the ward and coming to church on time (it starts at 9:00, but the majority are there at about 9:40.) So that´s our focus.

This upcoming week should be a pretty relaxed one. Today, Pday. Wednesday, the Mission Christmas Party. It´s gonna be dope, and the office elders have set up a bunch of stuff. Thursday in the pench at 7. Friday, Christmas pday. So yeah it should be pretty great.

We did find one woman this week to teach. Her husband died a little bit ago. We taught a menos activo family Ha nacido un salvador (a savior is born) and she just came over and listened because we taught the lesson outside. so then the next day we taught the plan of salvation, and now today were gonna teach the restoration!! should be pretty great.

Yesterday a dog came inside our pench. We left the door open and we were in our room talking and what not and then I got up and it was just in the kitchen being dumb. But haha there are like 3 street dogs that chill outside the pench. All I do is whistle and they all come runnin haha. but yeah this one in the pench is super skinny and we named it Deer because it is so big and skinny. but yeah.

I don´t know if there´s anything else. I had another intercambio with Elder Willard which was fun. He´s super old in the mission and ends in like april. I got some of his wisdom.

Have a very Happy Christmas and a merry good year. Enjoy the snow. All my white shirt´s collars are yellow haha.

Remember why we celebrate Christmas, it´s something everyone has to find out for themselves. you can teach it, but until you apply teachings they really don´t mean anything. That´s what i´ve found.

Love, Elder Anderson

The week where some stuff happened

So yeah this week was filled with ups and downs as normal. Tomorrow I hit 5 months. It´s pretty crazy cause yeah missionaries serve for 24 months and already 5 down, 19 to go!! And with time moving by muy rápido, things are going really well!!

So yeah Sunday night (last week) we found this kid named Cristian just knockin doors and what not. he´s 15. He invited us over this last thursday. We show up and his mom´s like yeah come in! and seemed super supportive. So we sat down and taught the first lesson flawlessly. (We don´t get many opportunities to do that so we took full advantage) We felt the spirit and then he recognized it and it was awesome!! he even seemed hyped to come to church. We left the lesson feeling pretty fly and like wow dude this guys gettin baptized for sure. So yeah. We set up a return cita for saturday. We show up and he´s not there and his mom and grandma are like yeah he´s not here but we´re catholic and we don´t want to waste your time. So we text him and he´s like I´m on vacation today. and then he says yeah i´m catholic and not interested in your words. and so we kept walkin and we see the little chavonaso (punk) in his yard like 15 minutes later. Haha so yeah we were close. But we WILL find the guy that is ready in Palmira. We missed the target by centimeters. But yeah. That´s an experience.

This week president challenged us to write down 5 blessings. So it´s helped us. Because we work hard every day, and some days it feels like it amounts to like zero haha. but getting back to the pench and seeing all our blessings doesn´t make it so bad. Like we had 5 citas fijadas (set appointments) fall through in a row. We were kinda frustrated but yeah, it´s really ok, because you get blessings after you do all you can do... and we see the blessings!!

We also accidentally got into a bible bash session this week. We knocked a door and a guy came out and asked what we believed (fishing for the first lesson and jose smith and the book of mormon) and then like 10 teenagers came out and backed him up. He pulled up galations 1 6 which they interpret as the bible being the only word of god. But what we did was really simple. Elder lybbert just testified about how he literally could not be in Argentina if jose smith didn´t restore the gospel of jesus christ. That pretty much ended the conversation it was pretty cool. 

So on Sunday I was playing the piano with the organ settings and things were just going pretty good. during the second hymn my finger like slipped and accidentally changed the settings on the piano to like a weird jazz organ thing. I was super embarassed and we sang the last 2 lines of the song with the wierdest sounding organ ever. But  all is well now. 

So the palmira train is still rollin, but just not how we thought it would be. We´re still working a ful which is good, and we will see results soon as we keep at it and keep goin. Sufrir con gozo. just make it to p day haha.

Have a good week and if you ever ask me how the people are in Argentina, just think of the famous words of Tony the Tiger.... They´rrrrre Grrreeeat!!!!

Love, Elder Anderson

just a dark selfie to brighten your day somehow.

Palmira Continues

Well, another week has flown by and things are going really great. The palmira train is startin´ to roll. We had more success this week that any other week here in Palmira. So you could say it was a good week.

On Tuesday we had a noche de hogar (family home evening) with the Familia Arenas. It was really great, and we shared the new ha nacido un salvador (a savior is born) video. So yeah it was all great except one thing. Elder Lybbert was pulling up the video and it was going really slow. I had my naipes (face cards) in my scriptures and decided to do a magic trick. It was like my best one, too. Then Hermano Arenas proceeded to pull up the teachings of Joseph Fielding Smith and how face cards are ´an abomination´ and evil in the sight of god. So yeah haha cane was dropped on me for face cards but yeah. just kinda funny.

So that family that picked us up are really cool. We visited the dad. He is a very faithful guy for the evangelico church. But he is super friendly and awesome and treated us like friends and stuff. Idk if he´ll want to listen to the message. But that´s what we´re gonna try, to visit him and incorporate our teachings. The reason he´s so faithful is he´s had a near death experience with cancer and he says his faith saved him. 

This week we had intercambios. And since Elder Lybbert is District Leader, we do it with the zone leaders. So i went with Elder Willard. He´s pretty cool and way experienced with the mission. It was good to learn a few things. And before he was zone leader, he was in Cementista B like i was (2 transfers before me). it was pretty fun to talk about the area and the members and stuff. He´s from las vegas and has 5 months left in the mission. he also served as mission secretary in the offices a while ago.

Friday we had zone conferece, which was awesome. (it was in Mendoza cetro where our old stake center was. so we felt like bosses cause we knew where everything was.) We have a goal to get 50 baptisms this month. President goates is upping the ante. We pretty much have no problems with being obedient so he didn´t drop the cane. He talked about hope, and how it applies to finding people. And gratitude how it helps with the work. So saturday rolled around and we were pretty pumped. We were searching for an antiguo investigator and we found the house, but the family´s sister´s family moved in. and they seemed interested so they let us in and we taught the first lesson!!!! mainly the mom is interested so we hope she´s reading the book of mormon!!! So yeah the lesson ended at 1:00 but that creates a problem. On Saturdays we have to be in the pench at 1 cause our lunch comes at 1. (a member pays a chef to bring us a yummy lunch.) so we RAN back after the lesson and arrived at like 1:10. and we were sure we missed it. But, we still had hope. So we wait til 1:30 and still nothing. Still had hope tho. And right as we just about threw in the towel she got there and all was well. Hope goes a long way.

We also found some younger people to teach. School is ending here, and the youth are often in their houses. we found 2 seventeen ish year olds in different places that seemed pretty interested. So like I said, the train´s starting to roll here in palmira. A little work (or a lot) goes a long way!!!! hopefully something comes of it and we can strenghten the ward!!!

Anyway I think that´s it. We´re working quite a bit and things are going good. So yeah have a good week and you guys are in my prayers!!!!!

Love, Elder Anderson

classy photo after church.

our thanksgiving dinner. milanesa, corn, carrots, mashed potatoes, bread. coke. yeah.

The zone. from left, top... Willard y Sanchez (ZLs) Carroll y Keyes (dad and son (training)) Puyol y Backstrom (porteño and dying canadian) Lybbert y Anderson (greeny fire) Bautista y Sahleen (hermanas) the Goateses, and the asistentes to the president (Vallecillo y Cahoon) they are not in the zone, they just were in the picture. there is another set of married missionaries (the rodgers) who left the conference early. #SanMartín #SmallestZonebyFar

A weird week

This was a crazy fast week in Palmira. Things have been going good, and there were some ups and downs this week. 

This branch is crazy. there are like 400 baptized people, but under 20 people that are active. It´s nuts. Elder Lybbert and I have to bless the sacrament every week because they don´t have any priesthood holders. (there are like 2 old guys that pass the sacrament. ) I also play the piano during sacrament meeting (opening and closing, cause I break the bread in between) the average age here I would say is around 75 years old, no joke. in about 10 or 15 years there won´t be a palmira branch. unless....

Yeah the people here are really set on their own religion. We did Abrir la boca (street contacting) a TON this week. But none of them went anywhere. And our investigator, hernan, dropped us because he doens´t want to get married. so we decided to turn our focus on menos activo in the coming weeks. 

Here´s a cool story. So it was like 7:30 and every single plan we had fell thru. like nothing to do. We were way far from the pench and we just were dead tired. So we start walkin and this family pulls up next to us in the car and offered a ride. normally we shouldn´t accept, but they appeared really nice. They drove us back to palmira centro where the pench is and then we got their name, and we´re gonna try to visit them on Wednesday!! it was pretty cool how that worked out. even if it doens´t work out, it was still a tender mercy.

For Thanksgiving we had our feast on Sunday for lunch. We had milanesa, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, carrots, bread, and coke. It was awesome. There wasn´t any pumpkin pie at the store haha. We also have started our christmas plans haha. it´s coming in hot, holy crap.

Yeah so what the work is hard.... if anyone is being taught it´s me... i´m learning super quickly the life of a humble missionary... getting rejected with every single person (except members. they  are awesome.) sucks sometimes but at the end of the day they have their agency. Eventually we´ll find someone ready but we feel for now we need to help the ward as a whole get more youth back coming to church. We will see how this plan works out this week!!!

I think that´s all. I didn´t take any photos this week, but I will next time.

con amor,

Elder Anderson

Palmira

So we're here. In Palmira, San Martin, Mendoza. Elder Anderson and Elder Lybbert. The legends. Jk we´re not legends but we´re working really hard and we´re getting some good time in the day and good numbers in the week. This week has flown by and it´s going pretty great. Elder Lybbert reported to the MTC 6 weeks before I did so we´re a little new. He had a latin trainer so our Spanish is pretty good and we´re doing pretty good together.

A litte rundown of Elder Lybbert. he´s from Tacoma, Washington. He´s 19 and studied a year at BYU before heading out on  the mish. He was in Mendoza (the zone) for a transfer so I knew him. He was in plumerillo, one of the most dangerous areas in the mish so he´s pretty fearless in San Martin. He´s really cool and has the desire to work. He´s good at singing and he did swimming in high school.

So Tuesday we had a mission wide conference. I saw all my friends from the MTC and was super pumped. We´re all here now. Anyway the mission wide conference was by Elder Texiera and Elder Soares in the seventy so they had some good advice for us.

San Martin is definitely a different zone. There are only 12 missionaries in the zone. The zone leaders, me and Lybbert, Elder Carroll and his son (he´s training) two other normal missionaries, Hermanas, and a matrimony of proselyting misionaries. Our district is me, Lybbert, and the hermanas, Lybbert is the DL. So it´s pretty tranquilo and things are going good.

We´ve got an investigator named Hernan. He had been getting lessons from the missionaries for months and never went to church. so we warned him that if he doesn´t come to church were gonna stop teaching him, and he came!!! One thing to know is that his kids are WILD. we were teaching him and his daughter legit bit me on the knee. and the son peed inside. (its a one room house, dirt floor.) so they came to church and the kid pooped his pants so they had to leave. (hes like 4) Oh well. it still counts as an investigator attending church. We´re gonna teach him tonight.

I´ve got some pictures to send if this computer would load we will see.

Anyway things are going good and time´s flying!!! have a good week yall and keep the spirit!!!!! #kony2012 lol nevermind.

 

Love, Elder Anderson

 

comp goals lol

 

p day eve fiesta

the baño of the new pench

the computer I am using

Training = Done (por fin) & transfer news

Hola mis amigos y familia. This week was pretty crazy as we wrapped up another transfer. I´ll just come right out and say what happened. (drumroll please)

I am getting transferred to a new zone and area!!!! This zone is called San Martin. It is still in the city of Mendoza but not as close to centro as Cementista B was. My area is called Palmira. Elder Leytton served there a year and a half ago so he knows a lot about it. I think that San Martin is pretty much the same as far as how dangerous it is, but there are Hermanas (sisters) in our Zone so I think it´s a little safer than Mendoza (the zone) My companion is an Elder called Elder Lybbert. He was in my zone in Mendoza my first 6 weeks, so I know him a little. The thing that´s cool is that he entered the MTC the first week in June... So he has 6 weeks on me. (He was in the middle of his training when I arrived). He´s from Utah I think, and had a latino trainer so our spanish should be good. He´s been in Palmira for 6 weeks. I´m pretty excited to have some "greeny fire" as elder Leytton called it and "gringo charm" with Elder lybbert. So far I´ve only heard good things about him, but I´ll share more next week.

Transfers will take place tomorrow. We have a mission-wide devotional at the Mendoza stake center, so I´ve got to pack my bags today, and bring them to the stake center tomorrow morning, and then we will head to Palmira. The devotional is with elder Suarez (i think of the seventy). So ill be able to see my friends from the MTC there.

Things have been super crazy yesterday and today. Elder Lafleur and Leytton are together now because they head home tomorrow. They had to pack last night, and report to the offices this morning for some last minute stuff. We stayed at their pench last night after Leytton packed his stuff at ours, and called a taxi get to their pench. They left this morning, and Lafleur and Leytton did a super crappy job at packing, because they left a TON of stuff at the pench. Our phone died, and once it was charged again we had a ton of calls. Lafleur forgot his "going home letter" which is huge, his emergency money (he needs to give that back) and a bunch of other stuff. So me and Elder Healey (Lafleurs comp) have all his stuff in our backpacks and we´re gonna meet them at the stake center after I write this letter. Then we gotta head to my pench, pack my stuff, call a taxi, go to the other pench. Oh, and Elder Healey got transfered too, so he´s packing. Then tomorrow we´ll call another taxi in the morning to take us and our stuff to the stake center. So it´s been super crazy but exciting nonetheless. Whew.

This week was full of Elder Leytton and I visiting his conversos in various parts of Mendoza. We visited quite a bit. on saturday, we got a call from Elder Baesler (my mom on the mish). He was zone leader with elder leytton in guaymallen and got news that one of their investigators was finally getting baptized. So the baptism was supposed to start at 8 at night but we were super late, and they were actually waiting for us. When we got off the collectivo we RAN. Elder Leytton and Baesler ran like i have never seen. Elder Baesler´s comp, elder kreling, isn´t in very good shape so him and i had to stop every so often. We showed up and literally 2 minutes later she got baptized.

I also had another intercambio with Elder Conover, this time in Cementista. It was pretty good, and we worked hard.

I´m looking forward to working and getting some investigators this week. I get the feeling Elder Lybbert and I are gonna work hard. He´s gonna be the district leader I heard too, but i´ll let you know more about him next week.

Anyway yeah. Trainings done, I feel ready, and it´s time to go work!!!!! I gotta go give Elder Lafleur his stuff and then pack my bags and I´ll be off on another adventure, hopefully this one involves immersing people in water for the remision of sins!!!

Love, Elder Anderson

Beto, Deacons Quorum Pres.

 

bowling last week.

me and my boy Juampy (Juan) he´s in the ward and is cool. 

I bought this lighter the other day.

from left.. Javier Bustos, Seba Bustos, and Franco. and me.



a map of the mission. you can see mendoza and san martin.

training almost done

Hola everyone, I hope you had a great week!! This week was pretty slow again but good things are coming.

We had stake conference Saturday and Sunday. The second counselor in the stake presidency started bajando la caña (dropping the cane, or getting after people) because they weren´t attending the temple as often as they could. He said that they have 2 temples really close and they really have no excuse to not be going every so often. That got me thinking, because the two closest are in Cordoba, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile, both of which would take forever to get to. At home we have 2 temples closer than the people have chapels here. So a way to be grateful for this is by going to the house of the lord doing family history. Just a thought.

This week is Elder Leytton´s last week. It´s been pretty slow and he´s pretty pumped to go home still. He´s got a lot of stuff to do to leave the mission. Today we´re gonna go to guaymallen (where he was zone leader) and visit some of his conversos (hopefully an asado too). Transfers will be this Sunday, and I will be sure to let you all know how it all goes down because to be completely honest, I have no idea what happens or where to go or what, but it´ll all be good.

This week my nickname, Ders, has started blowing up. Everyone in my district calls me Ders and it´s started spreading to my zone. I don´t really mind, it´s actually kinda funny. And every time I cook something for Elder Leytton, Lafleur, and Healey, it automatically gets the name "Ders ____" . For example, we had Ders Burgers and Ders Dogs the other day. One time I tried to make pizza, and it was disgusting, so we can´t talk about Ders Pizza because it´s so bad. But yeah, I´m pretty sure Ders will be my name for the rest of the mish, haha.

There was a giant spider in our pench the other day. It was HUGE. But we killed it before the eggs hatched. lol there were no eggs but it was huge and I have a picture to send.

Anyway I´ve learned quite a bit from my trainer, Elder Leytton. He had a lot of responsibility on his mission, he was district leader for a while and zone leader for 6 months before I was his comp. He´s just burned out. I´ve learned a ton of Spanish, (i can always understand and respond now) and I´ve also learned things to know on the mission. this next transfer I´ll put them into play, and with the strength of the Lord, I know I´ll be fine. I know sometimes I get frustrated with Elder Leytton but looking at the positives doesn´t make it so bad.

I think that´s it. i´ll let you all know what happens with transfers, I think that Sunday they will call, and by Wednesday I´ll be settled in a new area. Anyway, have a good week, go to the temple, and be safe. You´re all in my prayers.

Love, Elder Anderson



Ders Burgers and Ders Dogs.

 

the package said barfy.

Me and my DL Elder Ribiero. (from Brasil)

the gutter full of water. It rained a lot early on this week but now it´s pretty hot.

This is the spider, and that´s a normal sized chair. It was a wolf spider haha and if you zoom in you can see his eyes.

 

está noviembre

I hope everyone has had a good week, this week was actually pretty packed for me, and it was awesome.

Tuesday we had lunch with the Fmla Cari. Hermana Cari asked us if we could come back to give the house a blessing that night, so we came back that night and explained to us why. There had been an evil spirit in her house, messing with her daughter, the lights and slamming doors in the night. We told her we would return and do the blessing the next day. I was kinda scared to go back, so during the night I didn´t sleep that well. We showed up the next day, and she asked me to give the blessing, and I felt like I should do it in English. So I did. Nothing really weird or creepy happened, but once I finished, the spirit was back, and any signs of an evil spirit were gone. So that´s new.

After that, we had interviews with Presidente Goates and consejo with Hermana Goates (when we weren´t being interviewed.) Presidente Goates told me he chose Elder Leytton to be my companion for 2 reasons 1. for him to help my start my mission and 2. for me to help him finish his mission. So I´ve been motivating him more and more these days and it´s been better. I told him about my interview and he agreed, so we´ve been working a little bit better than before.

On Friday we had intercambios, or exchanges. I spent the day with Elder Conover, the missionary in my district that is even newer than me. We worked quite a bit, and it felt really great. I even cooked him some milanesa when we got back to their pench. His spanish still needs a lot of work, so I had to help him quite a bit. We knocked on this door and the woman said "soy un testigo de Jehova" and elder conover said "no, no somos testigos de Jehova" which was a very bad thing to say in that moment and I had to bail him out by talking to the woman. It felt pretty good being the more experienced missionary, and it boosted my confidence quite a bit helping him out. Then on Saturday, intercambios ended, so I went back to Municipal.

Just a funny little story. Yesterday at fast and testimony meeting this woman was bearing her testimony (she is very old) and the power went out. All the lights, heaters, and the microphone stopped working. She just kept on talking like nothing happened, I don´t think she even noticed. After like 5 minutes the power came back on and she finished like nothing happened. I thought that was kinda funny.

Our plan of action is actually working. We had a noche de hogar (family night) with one family and the kid brought a friend, and we´re gonna go back and teach him more (i think) ! so we have a new investigator, and it´s pretty awesome!

Sadly, I will probably be leaving my area. Elder Leytton told me in his interview with Pres. Goates that they are planning on letting the other missionaries in the ward take care of our area. Nothing is for sure yet, but chances are I could be packin my bags on the 15th of November, when transfers end.

Have a good week, the church is true, and eat some milanesa.

I have photos, too.

Love, Elder Anderson.

 

This is an empajore. an alfajore wrapped in empanada lids. covering in dulce de leche. We made them for our halloween treat.

The inside of the empajore. chocolate alfajore. sorry it´s blurry, deal with it haha.

Intercambios with elder conover in their pench. This photo is a little bright, but whatever.

This is my halloween costume. Elder Leytton bought this quite a while ago but he let me wear it on Halloween. It´s a pretty dope tie, and minions are HUGE down here.

 

Week whatever it is i don´t know‏

What´s up family. how´s it going?

This letter is probably going to be pretty short as this was another slow week.

Elder leytton is finished with his mission in 20 days. so now he has less days than I have months. We still have no investigators although I know we could if we worked a little harder. Elder Leytton can´t stop thinking about going home so I just gotta wait a few more weeks to get back in the full swing. I love him nonetheless, and I´ve still learned quite a bit from him. I´m definitely ready for a new comp who doesn´t sleep in every day haha.

We have, however, been experimenting with our zone action plan which is a family home evening every night. We´ve had a couple, and so far no one has brought a less active or non member but that´s okay. We still had a good lesson and my spanish is better than ever. Thank you for all the prayers, I don´t know where I would be without the blessings I have received. 

The other day p day we were playing some games and I showed them that pencil game. (you know the one where you arrange the pencils and they have to say what number it is, and it´s actually your fingers on the table) Elder Healey is a VERY smart person and took several AP classes in high school and wants to study calculus and astrology when he´s older. But it was hilarous because he was the last one to figure it out and we still give him crap about it hahah just a funny little story.

Sunday was election day in argentina for president, so we couldn´t leave the pench because there were government things all over the place. So, Saturday night we bought some meat and had an asado with Elder Lafleur (also finished with his mission in 20 days) and Healey (has one more transfer than I do).

I was listening to a conference talk the other day on Elder Lafleur´s ipod about the articles of faith, I don´t remember exactly who was giving the talk but I decided to combine the talk with the ponderizing talk and now i´m ponderizing the articles of faith. So far it´s going pretty good, and I´ll be done with them in more than 4 months.... wow.

Anyway, you all are in my prayers and cool beans yo have a great week!!!!!

Love, Elder Anderson

Hola!

This week was a pretty normal week, not a whole lot happened but it was still pretty good.

We cleaned the pench for Joaquin on Tuesday like we always do, and it looked exactly as it always does and Joaquin got mad at me because the floor and bathroom still looked dirty to him. but he´s crazy sometimes, and he didn´t bring us pizza on friday like he normally does.... looks like I need to step up my cleaning game.

We had a zone meeting this week. Our zone leaders are awesome. the senior zone leader is Elder Baesler, who is my mom on the mission (last comp of Elder Leytton before training me). Elder Baesler is from Seattle and is a really great leader. He saw in our zone that like 6 elders are done with the mish after this transfer and gave this awesome pep talk about not burning out, (including my comp) and it sparked something in them so our zone´s number´s will be better. Our zone´s plan of action is noches de hogar (family home evening) every night with a member. yesterday at church we set up a bunch of them with members, and some of them are gonna bring friends who aren´t members, and hopefully we´ll get some new investigators this week!

During our weekly planning elder leytton told me if he doesn´t get up at 6:30 in the morning I can molestarle (which means bother in Spanish) so when he doesn´t get up I just clap really loudly by his head and he gets up hahaha.

Our district leader, elder Ribiero, is training a new missionary. It feels so weird not being a complete noob haha. he´s getting super frustrated with spanish but I tried to tell him that its something every gringo has to go through, and I still can´t understand stuff sometimes. He´s from California and is pretty cool.

We made some more milanesa pizza this week which was really good. I can cook milanesas pretty well now.

Today's p day activity was an asado out in the rain with the zone leaders-- Elder Baesler and Kreling, me and Leytton, Lafleur and Healey, and Ribiero and Conover, the new guy. I bought the meat with my personal debit card, and everyone just paid me back so it was just like i´m taking out money for personal cash. I also bought a backpack because we need emergency backpacks. I found one for less than 20 bucks which is cool.

As far as learning and stuff just the usual... spanish is getting better and my knowledge of the mission material is getting better too.  I´m actually really grateful that my companion is a native. We had a meeting with the other newbies in my group the other day and the Elders with gringo trainers´spanish wasn´t progressing. I´m getting confident with talking to people mostly. It´s gonna be nuts coming back from the mish and being able to talk to my friends who are also speaking spanish.

I think that´s pretty much it!! it´s been freezing this week and I´m looking forward to a little PRIMAVERA down in Argentina!!! also it will be the first year in my life it´ll be hot on my birthday, heck yeah. Remember i´m praying for you all, and when things get tough, stay positive and count your blessings!!

Love, Elder Anderson (ders)

3 Months

This week has been pretty cool and normal, but it feels like it´s going by faster and faster every week. It´s nuts how fast this mission is going by. In 3 days I´m 1/8th of the way done which seems loco. Anyway here´s a quick rundown of the weeks events.

The transfer ended, and my dear friend elder Later was transfered. We stayed at their pench last Pday night to spend some time with him. It was 9:45ish at night and we ordered some pizza like we do and we were gonna go get some Coke from a kiosco a block away but Elder Lafleur and I both had an impression we should stay in the pench. We acted on this, and a few minutes later we heard several gunshots nearby. So yeah it´s good we chose to be obedient that night, and the Lord provides in situations. Anyway we were talking about getting robbed and stuff and pretty soon the conversation turned into like evil spirits and what not people have dealt with on the mish and there was just a bad atmosphere in the room with the conversation. Then the pizza arrived and Elder Leytton asked if he could say the prayer. He offered a beautiful prayer in English which quickly invited the spirit, and all other feelings vanished. Gosh, the gift of tongues is sooo real. He is learning english and it was awesome to hear the prayer.

We have played futbol twice since the last letter. I´m pretty bad compared to everyone we play with (we play with the youth in the barrio) but i´m pretty good for a gringo. Last week there were a ton of people at the stake center playing and it was pretty hard to get into a game, because if you score a goal, you stay, and if you lose you go out. This one latino hurt his leg during one match, and my companion called me in the game. He was about to deliver a corner so I ran in from the mid line toward the goal and he kicked it perfectly up to me (i had 12 inches on everyones height) and headed it into the goal. It was freakin nuts and all these kids were so astonished haha. That was my one moment of fame haha.

I keep on hearing American songs, and especially this week rock. We were on the collectivo headed for wherever we were going and this kid came on with a mohawk and a bunch of earrings and stuff with "Another brick in the wall, pt 2" playing from his earphones really loud. I was so happy hahaha it´s been ages since i´ve heard that song. But then he left before it was over. sad.

We had a trainers and newbie meeting the other day. We were riding the collectivo and this guy asked me what day it was and all this random stuff. He kept on trying to use English but his English was horrible so I couldn´t understand. But I gave him a pass along card and stuff and started talking to him about the gospel which is cool. We were heading off the bus and I said "su ingles es mejor que muchas personas" which means your english is better than most people. and then we got off and elder leytton said Que mentira mas grande which means that´s a lie hahaha yeah his english was horrible but i´m not gonna tell him that if we´re trying to help him.

We still don´t have new investigators but we got a reference today and we´re gonna go talk to him tomorrow. Weve been working a lot with members and recent converts, so hopefully this reference works out and we can share the gospel with him!!!

It´s been freezing and raining all week. It´s supposed to be spring hahaha but not yet... i had to use my big coat this week it was that cold.

A little shorter letter this week but yeah you´re always in my prayers and keep on keepin on!! God loves you so love him by keeping his word!!

Love, Elder Anderson

It was really cold all week so I ate some soup to warm up. yeah.

This is a milanesa pizza. Elder Leytton invented it. pizza, milanesa (meat with bread crumbs. it´s amazing and is staple here.) on another pizza.

3 week old salad in the fridge.



Selfie???

End of Transfer 1.

Hola familia, here comes another letter from Elder Anderson. This marks the end of transfer 1, halfway through my training in Cementista. 

This week was pretty crazy, with visa work and General Conference. We didn´t get a whole lot of work done, but it was still a great week nonetheless.

On Thursday night I went on splits with elder Later to the offices in Godoy Cruz (he needed to do his visa work too. he has 6 months in the mission). There were about 20 other missionaries there who were either noobs or super old and need to be legal to leave the country. We slept that night at the office pench nearby and got up at 2 am. We took a van to San Luis and there we basically followed around Elder Benedict, the mission secretary. He had all our documents and stuff, we just had to sign stuff to be legal. We had meals in this restaurant which was pretty awesome. Then, on Friday night, we did ALB which means abrir la boca which means open the mouth which is basically street contacts. Me and Elder Later got assigned to the plaza in downtown san luis, so it was pretty cool. Then Elder Later wanted to go on intercambios so I was with elder nielson, an elder in my group at the MTC. We walked around and managed to talk to people. We started talking to this guy in the plaza and he told us after a little he knew english, and it was pretty good. it felt super weird talking to him in english. he gave us his address and now the missionaries there are hopefully teaching him.

Last night was transfers. I´m not going anywhere, cause i´m still training. Elder Later is being transfered to San Juan, the northern, hot part of the mish. Elder Lafleur was crying, not cause he´s leaving, but because the Rubiks cube is Elder Laters, and Lafleur can´t play with it anymore. haha. Elder Leytton was on the phone forever last night. Apparently our zone is super capo (cool) now. His last comp, aka my "mom" is now our zone leader, so he was pretty happy about that.

General Conference was really awesome. I enjoyed listening to every talk of every session Saturday and Sunday. there was a room in the back of the Stake Center for Gringos where they had a TV with it on in English. there were 6 of us gringo missionaries, (5 from the states, 1 from australia) and tons of members in the chapel watching. I enjoyed all the talks, it went by super fast. I hope the new Elders will be like the new Elder Holland and Bednar, but I don´t know about that. 

I have lots of pictures to send this week after we used crappy computers last week.

Things are pretty awesome here, I couldnt be happier. I know the Lord is looking out for everyone at all times. He always has his hand stretched out, and it´s up to us, through earnest prayer, to accept his offer. This week I felt great and remained happy, so I count those blessings.

A little advice. It is your decision to be happy or not. Regardless of what happens you can still be happy. I have been associated with people who get upset easily, get angry easily, and seem sad a lot. I made the decision to be happy all the time. Things happen, but it´s still the way you react to it. Reacting negatively puts you 180 degrees around the way Christ wants you to be. Things happen, but if you remain positive and happy, the thing that happened isn´t that big of a deal. I´ve had hard times, as everyone does, in my life and on the mission, but that doesn´t mean I´m changing my mind. Sufrir con gozo.

Anyway, this week upcoming week should be great... I can´t wait!!!

 

Love, Elder Anderson

New Argentine Haircut

The Asado last week

A full week of fun

This week was pretty great, super fast, and awesome to say the least.

Still, our investigators are really slow. But we weren´t doing a lot last week to help that. Elder Leytton told me during our Weekly planning that in his last area he didn´t really work that much and baptized a lot. So he thought that would work here, but he´s starting to realize its not the same haha. So this week we have a lot of goals to find people and do our best this week. But yeah we talk to members a lot too, and we have a plan for ward council because the members here do nothing to help so it´s a little hard. But yeah, we´ll have some investigators hopefully progressing by the end of the week.

On Tuesday we were teaching some english to people and the sample sentence was The man eats fish, but he does not like it. which says El hombre come pescado, pero no le gusta. Then we asked if there were any questions and this member named Beto (he´s a deacon) raised his hand and said ¿Si él no le gusta, porque está comiendolo??? which means, if he doesn´t like it, why is he even eating it haha I just thought it wa pretty funny.

The other day we were at la familia echequarai eating and politics came up. Hermana eche. asked me if I like Obama and I didn´t really care, but I told her a lot of people don´t really like him. And she goes ¿porque es negro? haha cause he´s black? she was joking but it´s crazy how racist the people are here. But oh well, I thought it was funny too. and this family has the best lunches, it´s an asado every time.

Tuesday I broke through with a great accomplishment, I can now solve a Rubik´s cube. That´s right, Nick. We were visiting Elder Lafleur and Elder Later (the other missionaries in our ward and district) and Elder Leytton stole their rubiks cube and taught me all the tricks and stuff that night. It was really hard for me at first, but after practicing a little in the nights I´ve become okay at it. My record time is 3 minutes and 14 seconds. nick you better watch out hahaha.

I also got my first Argentine haircut. It´s basically shaved really short on the sides and longer on time, like soccer players haha but that´s fine. hopefully I´ll be able to send pictures but this computer is a piece of crap so I don´t know if I will be able to today.

I have finished the Book of Mormon already and I´m in section 26 of the Doctrine and Covenants. It´s awesome studying the scriptures, and I actually look forward to studying now. I´ve found some pretty awesome scriptures along the way for investigators and myself. So yeah. read the scriptures and your day will go a lot better!! That´s the truth!!

Today´s P Day festivities included cooking our own asado. It was awesome. Elder Leytton has some experience so he taught me. It´s basically finding the fattest meat at walmart, starting a fire until it´s coals, (we cooked it in the backyard of elder lafleur y later´s pench, it´s huge) and then putting the meat on a oniony grill and basically making sure it doesn´t burn. We also hit up Guaymallen (by Mendoza) and went bowling. I got a 108 but Elder Leytton finished with 156 haha but I beat Elder Lafleur and Later so yeah.

This week is going to be a little different for me, because I will be traveling to San Luis to do some visa work. San Luis is about 6 hours away by collectivo (bus). On Thursday night I have to report to the offices in Godoy Cruz Mendoza, and then at 2 in the morning ill leave to San Luis. I´ll stay there until saturday doing paperwork, idk, but yeah. There´s a lot of missionaries going with so it´ll be cool.

Moroni 8 verse 3

That´s it I believe. And how bout them Utes, of course when I´m gone lol but that´s soooo sick what happened. Have a great week, make sure you watch conference too, it´s gonna be awesome!!!

Love, Elder Anderson

Monday Funday Though

What´s up family. A lot happened this week and I´m excited to write this letter. Where to start where to start.

Yes, there was a big earthquake in Santiago, and we definitely felt it. We were in the pench playing cards and what not because all our lessons fell through and everything started to shake. I wasn´t really that scared and Elder Leytton is pretty used to them. He says it was about 5.5 or 6 on the scale, but I though it was a lot lower. But everyone is fine in Mendoza. There were a few aftershocks afterwards but it wasn´t bad. We got a text from our zone leader saying that President Goates wanted everyone with emergency backpacks that night, just in case a larger earthquake came. During the night I heard banging noises above me but it was just the freakin gatos (cats) running on the roof like they always do. So now I don´t like cats even more, I thought it was a bigger earthquake haha.

The other day was Indepencence Day of Chile. So after a zone meeting me and Elder Leytton went to the plaza chile in Guaymallen and partied. Lol we just listened to the band and ate some empenadas from chile which was really good. So that was pretty fun. 

It´s been pretty warm here in Mendoza but today it was FREEZING. Me, Elder Leytton, and some other missionaries from our zone went to Cerro Arco in the Andes. It was like a 2 hour hike and at times it was pretty tough. But when we got to the top we made some sandwiches out of the bread and ham and cheese we bought which was really good. But it was really cold at the top of the mountain. I´ll send some pictures in a little of it. 

Dang, my Spanish has come a long, long way. Every day feels like a huge stride. I study A LOT, and I do my best to apply the things I learn. We teach an English class on Tuesdays with some other American missionaries and the other day we visited one of the families that comes. The mom of the family is trying to learn English, so she asked me if I could say the prayer, IN ENGLISH. (they are members). But do you know how long it´s been since I´ve said a prayer in English out loud. It was soooo weird. I was like praying for the things I normally do in Spanish, so the prayer was really simple, yet powerful. Like that´s another benefit of the gift of tongues. I thought about this for a while the other day. Simple language at times is really the best and most powerful, also very sincere. It made me think about how we should sincerely say our prayers.

But I can usually talk to natives now without a problem, native missionaries that is, in Spanish. There is a dialect here that´s somewhat European, so they´ll slur stuff or cut stuff off, so that´ll take some work.

The other day I was just reading the Book of Mormon and what not and I had this crazy idea of parallelism between the Restauración del Evangelio (restoration of the gospel) and how it´s kinda similar to Lord of the Rings. Let me explain. We have music we listen to and the score of the lotr was on it so it was on my brain. Like  Jospeh smith is a lot like Frodo. He needed to carry out a specific task, and because Joseph was innocent and humble he had the ability to do it. no one else could´ve done it. Just a random thought to share, sorry.

Yesterday we were walking along and the song Knights of Cydonia was playing somewhere. Becca yes, it was at that one part that´s really hard on Guitar Hero. I started jammin out and Elder Leytton didn´t know what to do hahahah lol. It´s freakin hilarious how much American music is here. It´s all the mainstream music, like I know every song here that´s not the latino fiesta pop whatever music in spanish. they play a lot of english music, and no one knows what anyone is saying and I´m like wow haha. 

I tried some of the Maté this morning and it was disgusting.

Our investigators are pretty much the same, little progress. We let go of one of ours, actually. We had taught him everything and he wouldn´t commit to anything so we taught again and he still wouldn´t. it was like he just enjoyed our company hahaha. His name is José Cuello. But he´s got some boss quotes he says during our lessons. for example:

Patience is bitter, but it brings sweet fruits. and:

Soy un hombre pobre, pero no un pobre hombre. Which means I´m a poor man but not a man that´s poor. 

Haha he´s funny, little Josesito. he´s got a boss coin collection too haha.

We will find some more investigators this week. Even thought it´s kinda tough here, We still work hard and it´s a blast. I´ve been making a lot of new friends in my district and zone. My nickname here, dubbed by Elder LaFleur is Ders. Exactly how it looks. But I don´t really mind being called Ders haha it´s a little hard for the latinos to say Anderson well, so Ders is just fine.

Still, none of the 5 curses have happened to me, but I´ve got a lot of time. Haha it´s all good here in Mendoza.

I think that´s it. I´m getting excited for General Conference. guys, it´s the prophets speaking. you know who speaks to them? God himself!! Like this is the first time I´ve been actually excited for it. But yeah, have a great week, the weather´s warm here, wombo combo, do something cool this week, I´m praying for you, go boca, solve a rubics cube, and eat your verduras.

Love, Elder Anderson

Another Week Gone By

Hola Familia, it´s been another great week. this week was full of great stuff as every week has.

After I wrote my email last week, we went to McDonalds and I ate a 20 mcnugget combo and it was soooo good. Then we went bowling but i did really bad... I bowled an 80 and Elder Leytton bowled a 104 so yeah it was bad.

Last week I had my first Asada. it´s basically a really big BBQ. We had it at this member´s house one night. The meat there was freaking amazing. There was this one sausage the members and the other elders (there were 4 of us) made me try. It was pretty good, until they told me what it was. It was a sausage made up of onions, beans, and the main substance was congealed blood of a cow. It´s called a Sangre Salchicha or blood sausage. It was really weird thinking about that in my stomach. but I´m still feeling great which is good.

I bought a grapefruit yesterday at a kiosco. It was freakin amazing. The fruits here are waaay good. So the food situation here is pretty bomb. Also, the coke here is really great too.

It´s been a little cold here the past week. It gets a little chilly outside which I´m used to but another thing happens.. the dogs get super on-edge. We´ve been approached by gangs of dogs a couple of times but if you reach down and grab a rock or just pretend like you´re grabbing one, they normally run away. But yeah we were pretty close to getting attacked lol. los perros saben la verdad. 

We have 3 investigators right now. The first is named José. He´s really old, and knows a lot about the church. We keep inviting him to baptism, but he doesn´t want to commit to anything right now. Our second investigator is Pedro, who is basically athiest but he´s pretty open to things. Tomorrow we´re gonna teach him, we´ll see how it goes. Then we have a Catholic woman named Carmen who smokes a lot but is a little interested in our message. We knocked on her door just to set up an appointment and she was smoking and the second she saw us she tried to hide the cigarette. It was pretty funny but yeah.

Anyway yesterday was basically a holiday for Argentina, it was river v boca futbol. Basically like the super bowl. These are the two best and biggest teams, and they are huge rivals. People always ask what team you´re on haha. My team is boca, because Elder Leytton is my dad and he likes boca so haha i don´t really care. But we had to stay in the pension all day after church yesterday. We called a member at 9 last night and she said boca won 1 to 0. you could definitely tell someone scored, because we were studying and all of the sudden you could hear cheering yelling and crying haha. and after the game was over I could hear a bunch of gunshots but yeah it´s just the culture and futbol haha. We´re gonna go play some futbol after we´re done writing, I´m pretty hyped.

Other than that I´m feeling really great! I know that with patience I´ll be able to get through the first stages of this mission. I´m learning a lot everyday, including Spanish. I can´t wait for the day it becomes an automatic thing yanno? then I´ll be able to talk to anyone and it´ll be pretty great.

It´s a goal of mine to read every scripture throughout my mission. I am almost done with the book of mormon which is pretty cool. Hopefully I can do it. I am also reading the missionary library, but we have plenty of time to study every day so I think I can do it!!

Anyway remember I´m praying for you all and it this place and people are awesome!!!

Love, Elder Anderson

​the top of my heladera