Joshua gets his mission call and graduates from High School today!! The link to the video of him opening the letter is posted.

He's going to the Scottsdale Arizona. He reports to the MTC on the 23rd of July.

This is the link to the video of Joshua opening his mission call.

Using a screwdriver as a chisel

A Screwdriver is Only a Screwdriver
It's not a chisel, a pry-bar, or a knife. Use the tool for what it's designed for and it will probably last you the rest of your life.

Have you ever tried to use a flat-head screwdriver as a cold or wood chisel? How did that turn out for you? How often do you think you can use your screwdriver as a cold chisel before you render your screwdriver useless?

For those who clamor for our federal government to become more and more involved in social issues, such as healthcare and wealth redistribution, it would be well to keep in mind, our federal government was never designed for such things; in fact, the designers went to great lengths to prohibit the federal government from doing very much at all and often specifically these things. In general terms, our federal government was designed to provide for a common defense for each of the sovereign states and to be an arbiter for the sovereign states to keep them from quarreling with other. 

Regardless of how or what you believe the moral imperative for social justice to be, you're using the wrong tool; you WILL break it. Can’t you see the strains already? So, when some question the federal government’s involvement in social issues and become frustrated by it, consider that maybe, just maybe, they might not want a prize screwdriver broken. Remember, because some may not want the federal government to do it doesn't mean they don’t want it done at all.

Jacob's latest letter. He expresses his struggle with learning Portuguese

So lets talk about my Portuguese. Its pretty much the first thing that
comes to mind since I am talking, thinking.. doing everything in
Portuguese. Every night I come home and feel like an idiot because I
don't always deliver my thoughts perfectly. Which I don't even think i
could do in English lot of the time. My biggest worry is when i don't
really "understand" what someone is trying to tell me. Teaching
someone requires to do more then have an idea of what someone is
saying. This requires to listen with you head to understand what is
literally said and listening with your heart.. Or depending on your
companion... Which is probably been one of the most difficult things
to get used to. But i have also had some great progress with
Portuguese. Realized that I don't translate anymore. I either
understand or I don't. I either can say it or I think I can and i say
it wrong. When i first arrived people speaking fast was a probably.
Now it doesn't matter how fast someone is speaking, i understand.
Hopefully in another 6months i wont speak like a gringo anymore!!
Been studying a lot about being a good missionary. Preach My Gospel
helps a lot with this.. There is so many things through out the day
that I wish i had the Internet for but learning how to a good
missionary is not one of them. Preach My Gospel has it all... I have
been trying to look for these small details as well in the Book of
Mormon which is not as straight forward and Preach My Gospel and at
times even more straight forward. I have made a long list of how to be
a good missionary but do not have it with me so in short. Being a good
missionary requires a lot of WORK, prayer, fasting and a continual
effort to be more like Jesus Christ.
Something that pretty cool that happened this week. So probably my
favorite and least favorite investigators.. We decided to give them a
little bit of space maybe 2 weeks ago. The husband is always working
and doesn't make time to keep commitments but accepts the message and
thinks its true and wants to move forward. The wife on the other head
doesn't really care to much about religion. Finally when she started
to get interested she decided to look us up on the Internet. Now she
thinks we are devil worshipers or at least that's what her husband
says she will not say directly for us what she found on the Internet.
So when the husband first told us this  and said she didnt want to
talk with us again we decided to return for a little while. Finally
Saturday we decided it was time to go back, we took the quorum leader
with us who is/was/always will be a great missionary with us. Our goal
was to have the wife tell us about her doubts (we worship the devil)
and get her to go to church. We didnt get her to spit out that she
thinks we are devil worshipers but we did talk about a lot/ton of
other things. By the end of the lesson I was sure that she hated me. I
"worship" the devil. Don't speak the lang as beautifully as i would
like and say somethings very directly. But when the lesson was over
and we were saying good bye she told me that she missed me and wants
to know why she doesn't see us everyday anymore.. I was a little bit
blown away.
In short. We have been set apart to service. The spirit that is with
us is real. She may not recognize why she likes having us her in house
and miss us but it is because of the spirit that is with us. i dont
know many born again catholics that would tell devil worshipers that
they miss having them in there home...
Restoration of the Gospel is really happening and is still happening
everyday all over the world. Its happening in the homes of your
friends and family. Are you apart of it?
-- 
And they call me
Elder Anderson
For behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ

"Y Ahí Viene El Frio" Joe has now been out eight months

Subject: Y Ahí Viene El Frio

 

First of all I want to thank my grandma Phillipps for her package, the last package I will recieve because the mission isnt going to customs to pick up packages anymore, I loved the beef Jerky and also the assistants did too. This week went y super fast. Elder Bingham got sick on monday so we couldnt really do anything all day. Then on tuesday we had our zone meeting and after we went on divisions with the Elders in our district, but when we got back to our apartment the zone leaders and assistents told us they were coming oer to inspect the apartments. Scary right? Luckily our apartment was super clean and they couldnt say anything...haha take that assistants. After divisions ended on wednesday night the Elders in our district slept at our apartment because we had multizone conference all day on thursday and their area is like an hour and a half away. multizone conference was really awesome. President Heyman talked to us for 2 hours just about the Holy Ghost. I learned a ton of stuff. He literally explained just about everything tht has to do with the Holy Ghost. Right down to the covenant that was made between him and God that made him the Holy Ghost. Seriously I learned a crap ton but on thing that really stuck out to me was when our President described the godhead as the first presidency of everything. I had never thought about it like that and it just makes so much sense now. Our president also described the Holy Ghost as a running river: its always there andits always moving, whether we are close enough to hear or see it, or whether we are standing in the middle of it. So the the Holy Ghost doesnt change or come to us sronger, its us that move closer to and or pay more attention to it. The influence that the Holy Ghost depends on what we are doing to get closer to it. I cant really describe it as well as he did, especially in an email but I hope you get the point.

 

In other news...Holy cow its cold!!!!!! I had no idea it could ge this cold here. Literally it was just hot like last week. I am soooo glad my mom convinced me to get this big coat from mr. mac because it literally saved not just my life, but my comps aswell. it got super duper cold one night after the sun went down and my comp didnt bring his jacket so i took my coat and gave him the inner lining while I wore the outer shell. And luckily we servived. But it is also raining here. Just imagine it, freezing cold weather and on top of that some nie hard rain. Almost feels like Virginia haha. 

 

Anyway that´s a little bit of what happened this week. oh and I completed 8 months in the mission officially yeterday. Just flies by. Love you all very much and I m grateful for all your love and support.

 

Elder Anderson

Jacob gives his first talk entirely in Portuguese

So i was asked to give a ten min talk in church with almost no time to
prepare.. Lets talks about fun things to do... Giving talks still
isn't one of them. Especially In a lang that you speak with a pretty
heavy accent. I talked about The way of the Lord. I love Mathew 7 13
and 14. Explains pretty clearly that a very large group of humanity
will never enter of way of the lord. Accepting the Gospel and living
the gospel is a choice. That many people will not make and its very
sad. The way of the lord doesn't change how he wants us to live our
life's can be very difficult. The OTHER way is very easy it doesn't
have rules and its about how you feel and want. Because of these Jesus
says that he will never know them...  AT the end of Mathew 7 the
scriptures say the crowd was the people were astonished at his
doctrine; ....The doctrine of Christ is not always what we want to
hear. It can be brutally clear. 1. Decide if you believe in God - If
so accept that his will cannot change.
2. Make a  choice if Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the World - if so
accept that you are not perfect and Christ is absolutely necessary in
all things.
3. Read the Book of Mormon. Know for sure if it is the word of God the
Devil. For there is not room for it to be a little bit of both; - If
so be baptised and accept the restored Gospel of Christ.

If your not sure about 1 and 2 start with 3. If the Book of Mormon is
true then God exist and Christ is your savior. Our life is short and
it will effect all of eternity. Are you doing all that you can to know
and help others (firstly your family) know Christ?

its always pretty nice to hear about everything that is going on at
home!!! I pretty much love my family. Pretty much most of the time.
Almost all of the time. Almost..

-- 
And they call me
Elder Anderson
For behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ

Joshua's Mission Paperwork Is In

As we all await the call, Joshua says: "Starting to feel nervious. The mission predictions are up."

We are all very excited for Joshua as he prepares to join Jacob and Joe in the mission field. We expect his call this week.

No Internet

Well to start off the week we went 7 weeks in a row with some member of the quorum of the 12 apostles but alas all good things must come to an end at some point. the devotional was still good just not the same haha. This week we also tried to ramp up our member present lessons by getting more involved with the word we did not have much success oh well there is always next week. And now for the crowning event of the week I realized how much we truly rely on the internet in this mission because we went down for about 6 hours and we could not do anything we missed lessens and could not even tell our investigators why we missed tell the next day! so how did we occupy those 6 hours well like any sensible missionary would we played chess! six hours of strait Chess and to worst part I did not win a single game just goes to show you how smart these other elders are compered to me haha. they really have taught me a lot and I am truly grateful for that. As far as investigators go when I started we had about 2 as of this week we now have 12 so the mission is going well. One of my favorite investigators right now is Catlyn she loves what we are teaching her but wants to believe that there is no one right church and thinks they are all right but she is starting to come around to the Idea of this is the only true church, I have high hopes for this girl! Now there is Jack and he is a very close second because he will be the first person I taught from the start who will be baptized I am so excited for him he has a date for June 22 I cant wait and nither can he the only snag would be his parents because they don't even know he is meeting with us he just turned 18 and wants the gospel in his life and he said no one will stop him from knowing the truth so yeah really cool kid well the blisters from last weeks weal chair basketball game have gone away and you know what that means time to get new ones!!! tell next we 

Love Elder Vejnar!!!

​   

HOMEMADE MOSQUITO TRAP:

HOMEMADE MOSQUITO TRAP:
Items needed:
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 gram of yeast
1 2-liter bottle

HOW:
1. Cut the plastic bottle in half.
2. Mix brown sugar with hot water. Let cool. When cold, pour in the bottom half of the bottle.
3. Add the yeast. No need to mix. It creates carbon dioxide, which attracts mosquitoes.
4. Place the funnel part, upside down, into the other half of the bottle, taping them together if desired.
5. Wrap the bottle with something black, leaving the top uncovered, and place it outside in an area away from your normal gathering area. (Mosquitoes are also drawn to the color black.)

Change the solution every 2 weeks for continuous control.

Dale Anderson, AKA Grandpa Dale, Show's Off His Catch From Strawberry Reservoir, Utah

Dale Anderson, AKA Grandpa Dale, Show's Off His Catch From Strawberry Reservoir, Utah

Elder Joseph Anderson Doing a Random Pose From His Apartment In Argentina

Elder Joseph Anderson Doing a Random Pose From His Apartment In Argentina

On Friday I did my first baptismal interview as a district leader. It was a amazing experience to help a child of the Lord enter the waters of baptism. I wont lie I was a little bit nervous but I put my trust and confidence in the lord and he took care of the rest. It was great to see how somebody has gained such a strong testimony of the gospel before they have even been baptized and at the end of the interview I bore my testimony to her and invited her to share her testimony with me. She bore such a simple, powerful, and amazing testimony that it just made the room light up.

Elder Bingham and I have been working our tails off this week and we have finally found some people that are progressing!! YAY!! One man named Remundo came to church with us yesterday and after he told us that he had a dream about somebody baptising him and he thinks it is a sign from God that that is what he should do. The Lord is preparing His children for the missionaries. Something I love that our president always tells us is that "we dont prepare people...the Lord does. Our job is to find, teach, and help the people that the Lord has prepared for us" 

Sometimes the days are long and hard here in Argentina but I know that the Lord is always with me and that my job is to be obedient, put my faith and trust in the Lord, and to work as hard as I can, the rest is up to the Lord. 

Nothing really that crazy this week happened. We bought a bunch of stuff to make hamburgers and I cooked some hamburgers for us. They were really big and really good, until we were on our third one...then they werent so good. My spanish is coming a long pretty well but i am still working on a ton of stuff to be able to confince the people that I am native. 

I love all of you very much and I am grateful for your prayers and support.

Love Elder Anderson

Elder Jacob Anderson Calls Home For Mother's Day

Elder Anderson and his new friend

For Mother's Day Jacob was able to do a video call home. I was in Greenville, NC, Jacob in Rio de Janeiro, BZ, and Cindy and the kids in Charlottesville, VA. This was a very nice occasion. Joe was able to get on later in the day. The call had lots of people on it as was a little chaotic. We did some screen captures that somehow survived the experience. We don' know how or why, but they're posted here.

Check out Jacob's smile. He's happy!

Jordan is talking to his big brother. At the bottom we have Anna, Alisha, and Joshua on a different computer listening in. Jacob with his thumbs up is reacting to Jordan.

Anna, Alisha, and Joshua being entertained by Jacob. Notice what Jacob is doing in the bottom right to entertain them.

Anna, Alisha, and Joshua being entertained by Jacob

Elder Ray Vejnar's latest missionary letter

So this week it was L. Tom Parry's turn to talk to the missionary's at the MTC hi is the 6th in a row my mission is starting to expect something crazy because this has never happened before but we are loving it! again he talked about how our mission would influence our lives and that he was very proud of us, things like that just make you feel better about your choice to serve a mission, It was cool to see L Tom Parry again I don't think I will ever get over how tall he is, 

also this week we got some new temporary referral center missionary's that are waiting on visas they don't really understand that they are actually on a mission right now and kind of think of it as training still because they haven't left the MTC yet, so they mess around a lot and my District Leader just wants us to lead my example, sometimes they make me and my comp laugh. why because we have wheal chairs up hear and they see me sometimes get in them and balance on two wheals, they want to try ( I need to be a better example to them) they are not the most coordinated of people so when one of them tried he fell flat on his back made us all laugh and was told to start working again. kina a funny story I think.

I got three new investigators/less active members this week and they are awesome! one is named Rex and he works on an oil rig he wants to come back to the church and wants to bring his family with him he loves his family as he should because if we have our way with him, he will be together with them for a long long long time haha, the other is Jordan she is struggling with some encouragement things so I am talking to her every day, and also learning myself how to be much more encouraging. I have a tun more to learn and I hope I learn it soon for her sake! lastly is Jack he just turned 18 and is really trying hard to understand the gospel and understanding what the spirit feels like, so I decided to study in preach my gospel chapter 4 How Do I Recognize and Understand the Spirit! so I learned so much and now have a new favorite scripture that is Moroni 10 I think everyone should read it and look at how many times Moroni says exhort you It really helps you out I hope next time I meet with Jack he will know what the spirit feels like and realize he is feeling it! that is it for this week, I am being called to play some basket ball so talk to ya all later!

Love Elder Vejnar

  

Even Shorter Letter From Jacob

Well had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Mommy and Daddy for a second time.. Only 2 more times until in person... Was wonderful!

Really kinda strange leaving the members how and walking in the street again... Yep I am still a missionary, still trying to learn a new languague, in a culture is just a little bit different and we walked about 50 feet until i was bad.

Since yesterday was kind of a big talk with our families day  not suing a lot of time on the computer today! Thanks for all of your support! Keep reading the scriptures, praying and going to church worthly! if your not, start!

--

And they call me

Elder Anderson

For behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ

Short letter from Joe. We did the google hangouts for Mother's Day Yesterday

This week has (as usual) gone by really fast and talking to the family yesterday was really fun. Last week I had to give my first District meeting and I think it went pretty well. I will learn more and more every week about how I can make them better. The reason my letter is titled starting over is because we officially had to drop our last investigator with a baptismal date yesterday. He just doesnt have any time that he can meet with us and his is going to keep preparing for is baptism in his evangelical church because his whole family is evangelical and he likes it there. Really great kid and I know that some day down the road he is going to take the missionary discussions again and know without a doubt that this is the true church of Jesus Christ on the earth today. 

Tomorrow I have planned the district meeting to help my district use the Book of Mormon in our missionary work. I know without any doubt that the Book of Mormon is true, I have read it and prayed about it and I have received an answer through the fruits of the Spirit: Joy, happiness, and peace. And those are the feeling that I get every time I read in the Book of Mormon. I am so grateful for this wonderful opportunity that I have to be a representative of Jesus Christ and invite others to come unto Him. I know that He lives and loves us and that he leads His church today through a prophet of God.

That's all I got for this week!!!!! CHOW CHOW

Elder Anderson 

Elder Ray Vejnar's latest: " I now believe that everyone should serve a mission he promised us that we made the most right decision in your life and possibly all eternity"

haha so yeah this week I got to listen to Elder Holland and I now believe that everyone should serve a mission he promised us that we made the most right decision in your life and possibly all eternity he told us of why we serve and how it blesses our lives and the lives around us. I can not imagine how much joy we will have when we are in heaven and here our friends say thank you for sharing the gospel with me. This week was a lot better I am finely teaching lessons to people and having them want to learn. Also this week me and my companion have decided that just because we don't meet with people in person we will still get members present for our lessons by the way every one can do on line missionary work just thought I would through that out there sorry I am not going to wright that much because I am talking to my mom tomorrow and don't want to run out of things to say to her one more crazy thing that happened today tough before I sine off is we went to Red Robin for lunch today and got our hole meal payed for by a guy who just really likes the missionary's I guess its a Provo thing hu haha well I hope you all have a good week and remember if your hart is not into what you are doing then you will find it very hard to progress. If you saw that on my facebook well here it is again haha.

Love Elder Vejnar     

"Do my arms look big?" Jacob's latest letter from Rio De Janiero, Brazil. He says, "Getting back to your House is kinda a big deal. The streets can start to get dangerous and mostly its just against the rules and our president burns us to a polyp if we get back late."

Jacob, second from the left, back row, asks, "do my arms look big?"

Jacob, AKA Elder Anderson, wonders why there's this big hole in the street.

I officially have 6 months!!! tomorrow... Kinda crazy. The things I have learned and the progress I have made is awesome. But like usually the Lords gives me opportunities to see that i have an eternity of improvement to make.

Working with Elder Leite (milk) is really enjoyable. He is very funny and everyone loves him. Just when I starting to feel like i know Portuguese he makes a joke that every thinks is funny and i don't understand.. He has about a year on the mission. He is a convert, the only one is his family. He family was totally against him serving a mission until the day he arrived and then they accepted his decision and with time started to support him.

His very fist day in our area we went out with Elder Cruz. This is the second time that we have been able to be with Elder Cruz. Going out with Elder Cruz is pretty legit. It was a little embarrassing because I thought I had made super legit plans for out time with Elder Cruz but before we even got to his house our plans fell plan a, b, c and d.

This is pretty normal on a mission. When we don't have plans we usually just start making contacts and appointments for the next day.

We ended up teaching a less active family Before we arrived i explained everything I knew about the family. Since i have been here both Natalia (wife) and Edwardo (Husband) have been to church once.

Edwardo has been in and out of work 3 times. Elder Cruz taught them a really good lesson and applied everything that i told him about Edwardo and Natalia. The lesson didnt end until 930 (when we are supposed to be in house) and after words he wanted to get food.

Getting back to your House is kinda a big deal. The streets can start to get dangerous and mostly its just against the rules and our president burns us to a polyp if we get back late. Normally telling a member we needed to head back home is a member but it was a little more difficult with Elder Cruz (he knows the mission rules). When I finally muscled up the strength to tell he we couldnt eat with him and needed to get back to our house ( we were already 15 min late). He just laughed, said sorry and explained that President Lima is a good friend he will call him and explain everything. So he did. President Lima basically said that when we are with Elder Cruz we will do what ever he tells us to and he is not worried about. So to say the least dinner with Elder Cruz was awesome. He gave us a lot of advice... and when finally got back our ZL and DL had called us about 100 times..

Its not very often you get to return late without getting an ear full from your DL, ZL, then President..

We have been blessed with the restored gospel. The same gospel the Jesus Christ preached when we was on the earth. With prophets and the authority of God. Love it, Live it and LEARN IT. Read the Scriptures they can open your mind and eyes to see things you cannot even begin to imagine.

--

And they call me

Elder Anderson

For behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ

Joe's Letter From Argentina: "All I can say this week is that I´m tired, haha. I am soo tired."

All I can say this week is that I´m tired haha. I am soo tired. My companion and I have been tracking like crazy this week to find some people that are ready to receive the message of the restored gospel. I think I have talked to over 200 people this week inviting them to listen to our message and only a few of them agreed. But that´s the work.

I went on divisions to a little town called itati this week. The two Elders that are up there right now are the only two priesthood holders and they have an average attendance every Sunday of around 10 people. The thing that makes it really hard to work up there is that there is a catholic cathedral that is almost as big as the Salt Lake Temple in the tinny little town. Its called the vasidico or something like that. i am not really sure why there is such a huge catholic church in such a small town but I know that there is something called the Virgin of Itati (not sure how it is different from virgin Mary) but everybody who is catholic has a statue of her and prays to her. so about 95 percent of the people who live there are devout Catholics and the rest are just mas o menos Catholics haha. Oh while I was there one of the members fed us alligator meat. It was actually pretty good and I liked it a lot.

We have two investigators right now that have assisted church and are progressing. we are working really hard with both of them and we hope they will progress to baptism!! 

Well that's all the time I have this week. I love all of your and I am way excited to skype my family this Sunday!!!!!! CHOW CHOW

Elder Vejnar Plays Wheelchair Basketball

Well this week was not as successful as the past 4 and a half weeks. we started off the week with about two people we could teach and only got to teach. It was hard taking chats for that long. and when I say chats I mean people that just want to argue and tell me how wrong I am. me and my companion talked to probably over 200 people and only found one person who actually wanted to hear about the gospel, it is kinda depressing and if I didn't look at all the small things that happen this week would have made me very angry. but thanks to the little things like finding people that maybe are not interested in the gospel but just want to know a little more I learned that those people at least have had a seed of faith planted in them by us and maybe in time it will grow? you never know? Or discovering that my typing is getting faster and faster every day that is a skill I will be happy to have later on in life as well as on my mission! so yeah little things like that help me through weeks like this. Well that was a big one for me so that is my little word of advice this week don't forget the little things. Well other than the work slowing down it was a cool week in the office we have started talking about the second coming and I realized i was the only one in the office that had not read the book of Revelation so I started to do it and crazy stuff haha I know its a lot of symbolism that I don't understand but I see it as almost something out of a action movie so I like reading it.

     I know I am jumping around a lot but I am just typing the things that pop into my head as I type so in the temple today i found out some of my district can teach me how to say the things in the temple in different languages like German Spanish and a lot of others that is where I will learn new languages I am pumped about that. after the temple today we went to outback stake house because Elder Kitchens just passed his one year mark so I was not going to complain. After that what do we do well golf of cores! and I was bad but that was ok I had fun anyway. well that catches me up this week now I am going to play some more wheal chair basketball later!    we will see if i cant get some pictures! 

Love Elder Vejnar