Joe's mission letter

Well I am sorry that I didnt write a letter last week but I just got caught up in a bunch of other letters and took too much time reading and responding that I didnt have enough time to wriite a big letter to everyone. 

Well not a ton has happened in the past two weeks. My companion is super trunky and he misses his home and friends and family a lot. So I try my best to cheer him up and keep him motivated but I{m not going to lie...sometimes its hard. But we are working hard in this tinny little area haha I can´t believe that I have been in this tinny area for over three months now. I feel like we have honestly taked to EVERY SINGLE PERSON! But, as always, the Lord knows best and me and my companion are here for a reason. We have been working a lot on trying to get inactive families to come back to church and also keep our recent converts active. Its made me think a lot lately about how many times it says in the scriptures Endure to the End. I remember not wanting to wake up on Sunday morning and go to church for three hours, but i am so grateful for the determination of my family and especially my parents for helping me/dragging me to church every Sunday. Now on my mission I look forward to those three hours in church every Sunday. By learning more and more about the importance of church and taking the sacrament and come to enjoy more and more the woderful oportunity that I have to participate each Sunday. I feel absolute peace when I am at church and all of my worries and things to stress over are just forgotten for three hours. Yesterday I got to give a talk on missionary work I and actually didnt feel stress before I went up to speak. The Lord is blessing me constantly with the ability to learn the language, work hard, and do all of the things I need to do that many times I don´t feel I can. I put my faith in the Lord, try my best, and he takes care of the rest.

This week we also had another baptism!!! His name is Brian and he is the nephew of Norma, who we baptised two weeks ago. He is soo awesome. He wants to serve a mission already and is ready the Book of Mormon every day! This is just one of the examples of how the Lord knows best. I feel discouraged sometimes to have to work in this tinny little area for soo long and sometimes I feel like we should just leave and go open up another area to work in. But this is not my, my companion´s, or my mission president´s work...its the Lords work and he know where we should be. If we would have left we would have never found Brian, and he might not have had the opportunity to listen to the message of the restored gospel. I am grateful for the Lord´s helping hand in everything that I do and I know that without it I would not be able to do anything. 

I am learning a lot out here on my mission and I am so grateful for the decision I made to serve. The decision to serve a mission is by far the most important decision I have made in my life up to this point. I am already a different person and I know that I will continue to learn and grow and I work hard and serve the Lord.

 This week my companion and I have another baptism planned for someone named Ramon and he is yet another example of one of God´s children who he was well aware of and prepared to hear the message that we share. The Lord ALWAYS knows best and when we put our faith and trust in him is when we will learn and grow.

Thank you all so much for your love and prayers and I cant wait to write you next week!!!

Love Elder Anderson