El Cerrito Congelado (Frozen little hill)

It´s been another fantastic week here in El Cerrito. The weather has gone very cold, and as I write this I have all my winter gear, pretty cool. This week was full of miracles in the work to say the least, it was pretty awesome.

So we did 2 intercambios this week. The first was with Elder Moody and Elder Sears, I went with Elder Moody. He is in the same group as Elder Mortensen, so he has 1 transfer left. So Moody and I went and visited our progressing investigators, Baldi and Gero. So they have everything... basically all the teachings, they have come to church like 6 times, so they just need an interview and stuff. So we went to the house and you could tell something was wrong... Like Baldi´s wife was crying, and apparently a lot had happened this past week. She said that Satan was putting so much stuff in the way of her husband and son getting baptized (she is a member). So me and Moody bagged the original lesson plan and shared Mosiah 18:10 with them... Which talks about baptism, and how we need it to have the spirit. And then Baldi said, Sí, me voy a bautizar... (yes i´ll be baptized) and everyone was crying and stuff. So they are gonna be baptized this Saturday if everything goes as planned!!

Also during this intercambio me and Moody went up to Barrio Cerrito (the place extremely north) and feebly tried to find this woman named Karen... We found her.. and then we taught her and her friend a little about the restoration. It was awesome.

So the next day, we did Intercambios with Elder Olortegui and Perkins, the Zone Leaders. (Since I am District Leader, we went with them.)  I went with Olortegui, who is from Bolivia. I learned a lot from him about mission leadership and stuff. It was cool.

So yesterday was a pretty cool day too. And when I say `cool` I mean it in 2 ways haha. We walked really far in the freezing cold. It was a Sunday (which is always hard to work) freezing cold, and Boca and River played as well. We kept track of all the people we saw on the streets, and, in about 5 hours of work we literally saw 7 people. But then we decided to go to this new investigator´s house, named Mauro. He let us in again. And his house was crazy. There were 4 adults in the house with all their kids.... like at least 15 running around and being loud. So Healey and I attempted to teach the restoration.. but we threw in the towell about halfway through because it was way too loud. But we taught them nonetheless, haha. And it was warm inside the house so that was good. But yeah, then we visited a family who, the dad is a member but no one else, and talked about the Book of Mormon. So we taught 2 lessons on a Sunday. It´s way rare to teach 1 lesson on Sundays, haha.

So that´s pretty much it.... It´s been a great transfer here so far. We´ve had a lot of success, and It´s been quite a while since this area has had a baptism, so we´re pretty happy about that. It's all good!!! I have been eating quite a bit of Ramen noodles again as well. I have been studying quite a bit in the Teachings of the Presidents of the Church books... I found a José Smith one in the pench of the zone leaders. Dang, Joseph Smith was such a great guy...He did so much and we should be grateful.

Have a great week, the church is true!!!

Love, Elder Anderson

out of the city, it is pure farm land and trees.

getting all bundled up today. Healey didn´t know what was going on haha.

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

A pretty normal week. (and 9 months!!)

Cerrito is going pretty well. First of the weather here is getting way cold. I´ve broken out my big coat, and the other day I wore my sweater underneath. It feels like it could snow, but I´ve heard snow is pretty rare so I don´t know about that.

So this week we found some solid investigators, mostly off of following up on a street contact. We taught this guy named Daniel, and his friend, Daniel (yes they are both Daniel) They are pretty solid. We also visited a member on Wednesday when it was way cold. She gave us some hot chocolate and dulce de leche churros. And then she gave us a reference for this house on her street. We went back on Friday and the dude let us right in and we taught him a little about the restoration! it was cool.

Also this week a personal record was broken... We managed to get 6 investigators to come to church. It was pretty awesome. 3 were from the familia Alonso, who have been investigators for a while, but we have been visiting them a lot lately and invited them. Then Baldi and Gero came, the two who will probably be baptized, and then Paulo, this kid who´s family makes empanadas for their business. So it was a solid sunday yesterday.

So Friday I hit 9 months!! It´s been a great 9 nine months... my progression as a missionary has improved greatly. Weeks fly by. A year is coming up soon, way crazy!!

So Elder Healey is half Philippino so he cooks way good. So he´s taught me how to make a few philippino dishes... and they haven´t turned out too bad!! Just remember, no grain of rice left behind. So that´s good, and we have a kiosko right next to the pench in case we are hungry.

I also had my first district meeting on Tuesday, it was pretty solid, I think. My district is pretty awesome, I´ll send a picture we took.

I think that´s pretty much it..... things are going way good. The church is true!! So share it with someone who needs it!!

Love,

Elder Anderson

my district.except those guys to my right and left, those are the zone leaders, perkins and olortegui.

 

a picture of me. only there´s one thing not quite right... see if you can find it.

 

So last p day I ran into a red 4runner... had to take a picture.

 

so in honor of march madness we did a bracket with books of the Bible - taking out song of solomon and 3 john. Ephesians won. And yes that is my handwriting, it has improved.

 

some dogs eating our trash and chillin in the acequia 

 

the adventures of cerrito.

So this week was pretty solid here in Cerrito.  Hmm where to begin....It´s been way cold and rainy the entire week. So it´s been sweater weather. And we´ve been working quite a bit here nonetheless. 

So Thursday we had interviews with President Goates. It´s always way awesome to talk to pres one on one... He has so much wisdom haha. My interview was significantly longer than my last but we talked about my district leaderly duties haha. I also gave a 10 minute taller (workshop) on commitments to my district during interviews. It went well.

So just so you know... The actual Barrio Cerrito is very, very far from most of our area. It´s like 3 hours walking so there´s really no point in going there. But we asked around and found a colectivo (bus) that goes there in the morning. So we took it and went wayyyy north. So we knocked a few doors and explored... you could tell missionaries had never been there. But we still got brutally rejected a bunch haha. So then we explored some more and found where the road literally ends. And then we made a map of the Barrio Cerrito so people can go there eventually. It was pretty  fun. and cold.

 

On Thursday we also had a noche de hogar (family home evening) with some investigators. So we´re just about to start and it started hailing outside, the hardest I have ever seen, ever. and the largest. It broke windshields of all the cars outside basically. It wasn´t quite golf ball size, but I would say it was about the size of the Shooter marble (for my friends into playing marbles) or like a really big marble. so yeah.

We´ve got 2 investigators progressing really nicely, a father and son of a part member family. They are way cool and go to church every week. They´ll most likely get baptized some time in May. Other than that we found 3 investigators this week so we will see what happens with them.

We also had a zone meeting on Tuesday.... San Rafael is like the biggest zone in the mish.. something like 36 missionaries I don´t really know. But it´s huge. But 4 elders from my original MTC room are here in San Rafael, Elders Sivertsen, Parker, Nielson, and I. so that´s pretty cool. We will hit  9 months this week. 

I think that´s it.... have an awesome week!! and photos are coming!!!

love, 

Elder Anderson

 

noche de hogar with the familia alonso,investigators.

and in the study room we find healey making a funny face hahaah

view from the front door to the right.

 

view from the front door to the left.

up the stairs we have directly ahead the bedroom, and to the right is the study room.

 

el cerrito

Well I´m all settled in Cerrito, San Rafael. Cerrito means "little hill" in spanish. but yeah this area is way big and there are no buses so walking it is. I am with Elder Healey, and we have many great memories about Cementista with our burning comps. So yeah we´re working pretty great together and Cerrito has some pretty dope investigators. We even had 3 people come to General Conference yesterday, with ward members who sat by them (we wanted to watch it in english haha.) The pench in Cerrito is easily my best pench.... it has 2 floors. Upstairs is the bedroom and study room. Downstairs is the kitchen, the bathroom, and the cabinets for clothes. It´s pretty clean too, so hopefully I stay here for a while haha.

Well General Conference was way good, huh? I really enjoyed the talk Elder Oaks gave about opposition. Elder Oaks always chooses way good topics and stuff. But yeah all the talks were pretty good, they always do a great job.

The weather here is very different... I mean coming straight from the summer heat of san juan anything is colder... but here is it cold and rainy and windy and whatever. But winter is coming, dangit. Gotta break out my coat.

But yeah last Tuesday was transfers. I rode a colectivo from San Juan to Mendoza for 3 hours and then another from Mendoza to San Rafael for about 4ish hours. not too shabby. I saw a bunch of my friends in the terminal in Mendoza but I didn´t have a lot of time. but yeah.

So in my district we are 8. 4 elders and 4 hermanas. All the other companionships are trainers and trainees, so it´s pretty relaxed. I basically just have to make a bunch of calls as district leader for information. I also have to prepare workshops and stuff every so often but that´s not too hard. 

I´m trying to think if there is anything else... but yeah that´s pretty much it... have a great week!!!!

Love, 

Elder Anderson

last photo with Ribeiro.

 

first photo with Healey. I gave him some smarties I still have.