Elder Joseph Anderson's latest letter from Argentina

This week i got my knew companion Elder Valverde. He is Awesome!!!! He is 25 years old, he´s from Peru, and he cooks like a freaking iron chef. Its funny because everytime we talk to somebody he always sees a fruit/vegitable/herb... growing in their yard and he asks them if they will give us some. Then he brings it home and makes something heavenly for lunch. So far he has brought home mangos, a special type of lime, really hot peppers, leaves that smell kinda like mint but there not, and now he wants to kill one of the turtles that are all over the place here and cook them. In his last area he did it with an armadilo!!!!! I freaking love it!!! He is getting the ingedients to make me ceviche so I am super pumped for that. The only thing that sucks is when he cooks I have to wash all the dishes.

Today I am kinda tired because last night a huge storm came through our town. It rained super hard all night and even hailed really hard for like 20 minutes. The thunder here is just incredible, it penetrates to your very soul. I woke up like 8 times to what seemed to me like the end of the world.

This week has gone by pretty quickly. All of the investigators that we had have pretty much fallen off the map so we are working really hard to find new ones. We have found a few new investigators who seem like they may progress. We are working super hard with the whole zone to help everyone reach their potential.

Well I don´t have anymore time but I love you all and will talk to everyone next week!!!

-Elder Anderson (The second)

Elder Joshua Anderson's latest letter from the Scottsdale AZ mission

This week was about the same as all my other weeks. We are working more with less-actives in the ward. We got to go home teaching with some of the members to their less-active families. 

We had Zone conference this week. That is were our whole zone meets together and the President and Sister Sweeney along with the assistants to the president talked to us. They told us about how the church is about to put out this really cool video. It is called "The Gift", I think. It is a short video that is going to come out on Thanksgiving. It is just about the true meaning of Christmas. It is a really cool video. I guess the church is going to do some HUGE advertising for it. They are going to advertise the video in time square in New York City for a whole month, and on Christmas YouTube will have it as their feature video on the home page. We also have little pass along cards. We have to hand out 10 of these pass-along cards per day and then weekly we have to fill out a report on how many investigators came from handing out the pass-along cards. 

I am also excited to start taking Investigators and less-actives to the Mesa temple lights. My companion said the lights there are amazing. 

We also got to make some homemade pizza this week. My companion worked at Domino's before he come out on his mission so he threw the dough into a perfect circle. We are now going to work on making the perfect tasting crust, then we are going to try to make some sauce.

Transfers are coming up on December 8th. I have been in this area for 3 transfers so there is a pretty good chance that I will be leaving :( I hope that I go up to the mountains. Even though I love this weather, I really want so see some snow for Christmas. 

We have a couple progressing Investigators. We have also been working with a less-active family in the ward and they finally came to church yesterday, so that was really exciting. 

We have zone conference tomorrow and our zone leaders have asked us to give a training on our "focus". We are just going to share about how came up with a plan for our area and hopefully help others come up for a focus for their areas. 

That is about all I can think of for this week. I know I don't bear my testimony very much in my emails. But I know that this church is true and that it truly can bless our lives. Through the Atonement we can progress and God does have a plan for each of us! 

- Elder Joshua Anderson 

Elder Jacob Anderson's latest letter from the Rio mission

So this week was literally just crazy.. I dont even know where to start. The week just flew byyyyyyyy.. We have some crazyy crazzy investigators... Even crazy ward... and everyday is a new adventure..

Basically the missionaries that have passed by this area were/are a lot more dedicated then the members. They have over 700 registered members and about 100 people show up to church every week.. The ward is just huge... I have a pedometer that my last comp left with me when he went home. We walk over 8 miles everyday... One day we walked 17...

I hope my shoes will make it!! I think we could spend over six hours walking from one end to the other in our area.. My comp keeps telling me that we are going to start working with our brain and not our feet but for now we have been working with my feet. I try pretty hard to just do what he says. He is pretty funny and just has a ton of energy..

This week taught a lesson on Brazilian radio station. I taught a pastor inside of his church about the Book of Mormon. He is the Father of a member and we have permission. Did an unplanned division that lasted 3 days. I had to wash my clothes before i went to sleep for the next day and buy a new toothbrush.

But probably the coolest thing was a lesson I had with an Eternal Investigator. She is struggling with making a commitment and being baptizing. One time when she went to church she heard angles singing and she said it was the most beautiful thing she has ever hear. She is still doubting. So a spent a few min telling her about all the miracles that have happened during my mission. It was really cool to realize all of the extremely crazy things that have happened. Probably the coolest was my last baptism. Bruno said a prayer before he left his house that God would show him "the way." When he saw us in the street he said we glowed like the sun and he knew he needed to talk to us. When we talked to his wife a few days later. She told us that we looked like angels. She had a dream a few nights before she had met us and me and my comp were in it. In the dream she was told to do everything that we told her too.

After I told this investigator about all these crazy things that happened through the mission i realized that almost of the people who had a out of this world exp were not baptized. It was all the people who just had simple exp of prayer reading and going to church.

Sometimes we look for miracles when its the small and simple things that give us the answers that we need. Read the scriptures. The Book of Mormon is just unreal. A miracle from God that is physical proof.

Read, Pray daily and go to church.Day by day repetence is how we get better!

--

And they call me

Elder Anderson

For behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ

Joe's (Elder Anderson)'s latest letter from Argentina

Alright so I just got back from dropping off my Guatemalan companion at the office. Kinda sad but I am super excited for him, he is going to go to Utah in April for general conference. I told him that when I come down to Guatemala to visit all of the historical Mayan stuff he has to show me around everywhere. So for now until Wednesday for transfers I will be working in a trio with a district leader in our zone and his companion. We get along really well so the next two days shouldn't be a problem. We will be working in their area so i wont see all of my investigators most likely until Thursday.

As far as everything else goes, there hasn't been too much going on. Elder Julaj and I have found a ton of investigators but hardly any of them have phones and we have passed by for their houses but they haven't been there. Sometimes it gets kinda frustrating but we will find them sooner or later haha. There is this store next to our apartment where some Chinese people work and live and i usually try to talk to them. After talking with them a few times I have realized how much the gift of tongues has really helped me on my mission. One of the Chinese guys I try talking to has been here for two years and he can barely communicate at all in Spanish. From the little that he speaks all I have understood is that "Spanish is hard to learn". It makes me truly aware and grateful for how much the Lord really has blessed me with the gift of tongues as a missionary, and not only me but all of the missionaries around the world.

This next transfer I will most likely stay here with a new companion because President doesn't want to white wash zone leaders, but I am excited and ready to keep working with all my heart. I know that the Lord is preparing the hearts of many and it is out job to find and help them. I know that this church is true and that the Savior lives. I also know without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.

Until next week, CHow CHow

Elder Anderson (Joe)