The Anderson Family

Elder Joseph Anderson's latest letter

Well this week was probably one of the worst weeks I have had as far as numbers go. We had to be in early two of the days because of carnival which wasn't that crazy here. And we went on divisions with the zone leaders. I love my zone leader Elder Reynolds. He is a super smart guy who studied computers at BYU for a semester before he came out on his mission and he knows EVERYTHING. I´m serious like everything. So talking with him is never boring haha.

This week overall has been a lot of contacting, lessons with inactive members, and many rejections but something really cool happened also. So my companion was sick for a good part of this week which caused us to not work one morning and come back to the apartment early another day. So while he was sleeping and resting I did a lot of reading and praying. On Friday night we came back to the apartment early and my companion changed and went right to sleep because he wasn't feeling well so I had to plan for the next day by myself and after realizing that we really had nothing planned for the next day I was very discouraged and a little stressed. I did what I could to plan and then read a little and got ready for bed. While I was saying my prayer before I went to bed I asked Heavenly Father to help me know where we should go tomorrow and who we should go visit. After I asked for this help I took a moment to pause. A name of an inactive member popped up in my head. But this was an inactive member we had made contact with once and made an appointment to meet and talk to her but she wasn't there. We also tried multiple times to go back and visit her but we could never find her. And this was about 2 or three months ago. But her name just stuck in my head. So on Saturday we went out in the morning to work and we went to a family who had kind of/half way committed to be there at that time and they weren't. Immediately the member´s name came to my head and without hesitation we started heading towards her house. My companion asked me where we were going and I told him I felt we should go and talk to this member. So we started coming up to the house and she was sitting outside with some of her friends....Side story, while we were walking up to the house I got the closest to being bit by a dog I have ever been. Her neighbors dog came running up at me full speed and jumped at my arm but luckily I still can somewhat to a spin move so the dog just barely missed me. Then the neighbor came in really fast with a huge rod and protected me apologizing to me because I guess the dog had escaped and wasn't supposed to be outside because it attacked people!!!! Yikes!!! Really an angel probably moved me because of how fat and out of shape I am but I really have turned into an uncle Reeko and I like to think I was just too fast and quick for that dog...Anyway we sat down and had a lesson with the inactive member and it ended up being one of the most spiritual lessons on my mission. I told her I felt inspired to pass by her house this morning and that the Lord wanted us visit her that day. She told us she knew that was true and she had been really struggling lately but us showing up unplanned that morning to talk to her was a sign from her Heavenly Father that he has not forgotten her. What an amazing experience it was.

I know that we have a Heavenly Father who loves and cares about us more than humanly possible for us to imagine. So much that he sent his only begotten son to suffer and die for us. I know that the Lord hears and answers our prayers and that he is always there to comfort us. I love you all very much and I am grateful for all your help and prayers.

Love Elder Anderson