The amazing Elder Joshua Anderson plays the guitar and sings for pioneer day!

The amazing Elder Joshua Anderson plays the guitar and sings for pioneer day!

Elder Joseph Anderson "Cambios"

I didnt write yesterday because I got transfered!!! I am now in a city called goya about 3 and a half hours south of Resistencia. My new companion is Elder Reynolds from Arizona and he is super cool. I am kinda sad to leave me old area behide because the members were so awesome but I know that the Lord knows everything and does everything for a purpose. I am super excited to be here with Elder Reynolds and I am ready to hit the roads and find some people to reactivate and to baptise. Almost everything has changed as far as our goals and the way we work. All of the missions in the South America south area are doing this think where the only numbers we report are baptisms, reactivations, and church attendance every week. It will take a little getting used to but changes are always good to help us learn to adapt. Our mission president says that the only thing that doesnt change in life are the changes. It is so true. 

I havent had anytime to work in the area yet because yesterday I was on a bus all day traveling and today is Pday. Our church is a little rented out house and our branch has about 15-20 active members weekly. I am super stoked to work hard and invite others to come unto Christ. I dont really have much else to say but I am going to try to send some pictures.

Love you all.

-Elder Joe Anderson

Elder Jacob Anderson, Week #35

This week was really really rewarding. Madelana was baptized!! She didnt accept being baptized until thursday night. It was supér cool because at the end of the lesson she just asked... What time will be my baptism again?? The next day she said she was going to "test God,"

not something i would recommened. But she said she wasnt going to stop´drinking coffee unless it was really the will of God. Friday she made her coffee 2 times through out the day and she said she was literally unable to drink it. The force of God would not allow it. SO that was ... COOOl.

We baptized the king of the Ghetto(*second man in charnge) last week.

He is the guy in the middle of the picture. He is no longer able to walk because he was shot.. Look up "Complexo De Alemao." That is were pretty use all of our time... We have been teaching The family that is in the picture quite a bit. They are making some HUGE changes in there lifes. Daniel and Biance. I dont have time to explain everything that they have done in there life. Maybe next week. They are litearlly best freinds with the leader of everything that is going on here. LAst week they made lunch for us. They litearlly had a cow waiting for us. I told them i like to grill. They had enough meat to feed 20 people.

THey made 9 litros of Juice.. But the best part was before we started to eat we told them that we need to pray. We have been inviting Daniel to pray for the last few weeks, and he never accepts. When we asked who would say there pray for the food he said that we would. I thought he was joking.. But he was serious.. He litearlly said one of the best prayers i have ever heard it was soo sinser. He made his wife cry, and me and my companion just died...

If the life of this man can change, i have no doubt about any other human on the face of the planet.

Jesus Christ is our Savior and he is waiting for us to repent and follow him! SOOO DOOO ITT

--

And they call me

Elder Anderson

For behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ

Sister Bridgette Vejnar's Latest Letter From California

Last Tuesday we had a zone training and we learned about meeting our investigators needs and asking inspired questions! It was really good and I learned a lot! Then a member took us to Chipotle for dinner! I loved it! I could finally have something with meat! Then we went street contacting and then was able to have a fantastic member present lesson! It was the best member present lesson we have ever had and I am so happy for the willingness of those members who will come with us! We really need it and appreciate it!

Wednesday was perfect! It was about 73degress and we had a lot of lessons taught! The weather being warm defiantly makes me want to work harder and it makes me happy! I am glad that we are in warmer weather! At one of the lessons we went to she forgot we were coming so her friend was over and he was really drunk! It was really weird because he introduced himself to me like 10 times and then kept asking me what was wrong and he kept pointing to his whisky bottle, like "this is how much I have had to drink today!" Then he kept calling my companion and I baby girl and hugged us (which we felt really awkward about it because we aren't allowed to hug) and was tripping and falling all over her house so we just followed up with her and left, she told us she wasn't reading because she has been really busy but she has been praying about her baptism date a lot to see if it's what she is supposed to do. She doesn't want to come to church yet but you have to, to be baptized and so we have a relief society activity called For the Love of Chocolate...and you can probably imagine why I want to go, but we can't go unless we have an investigator going, so we are going to invite her to that and it's doing something for me and her! I get the chocolate and she gets to know the ward, feels welcome and gets chocolate! So it's a win win!

Thursday everyone canceled on us even dinner so we just did street contacting and we had a list from the church to go contact so we did that all day. The highlight of that day was the letter I got from Baylee! It was awesome! Thank you!

Friday we were going to ride bikes because it was really nice out and our appointment was about 4 miles away round trip, but my companion wasn't even trying to ride the bike and she was having a hard time with it so we were about an hour late to our appointment! So I was a little mad about wasting all that time when we could have drove so I was practicing a lot of patience! Then we went to our dinner appointment (we go to the same people every Friday night...not complaining!) we had Filipino food which this meal I wasn't that big of a fan of, but I still ate it! Then we went to our next appointment and we knew they would have ice cream there but I didn't want any and my companion was the one who told them to get ice cream so we playfully argued about who was supposed to eat the ice cream and that neither of us wanted it, we both just ended up eating the ice cream!

Saturday we tried riding bikes again and my companion actually tried this time, so we got to our appointment on time and it was really nice out so I was in a really good mood and then we did some service and was able to teach on the priesthood! Then our dinner appointment made us chili and it was really spicy! I loved it! Usually no one makes things spicy for people but they did and it was awesome!!! Then we went home and got the call from our district leader about transfers. Everyone in our district is staying except one sister, because she is going home, so we will be getting a new sister and that's the only change. Crazy!

Sunday we had our less active we talked to about priesthood come to church! I was so happy!!! He always says he will come but never does, so when we saw him we were so excited that he finally came! My companion said he hasn't been since shes been in this ward and that was 9 months, so we were pretty excited to see him there!

Also I am learning different languages! I can say "Hello, how are you? Good, thanks! Bye! Goodnight!" in Armenian, Tongan, Spanish, and Tagalog! It's really fun, but I know why I was called to serve English speaking now! :)

Sister Vejnar

Elder Ray Vejnar's Latest Letter From The Provo MTC Mission

     Ok so this week again the biggest problem is just trying to find out if people are going to be able to schedule with us I feel like a lot of people give us empty promises of yeah we can meet whenever so sort something out and then to ignore us all they need to do is not pick up there phone or not answer us on Facebook, so myself and Elder Zahourek where thinking and where about to start our planning session with a prayer and so we where talking about what we wanted to pray for each investigator when this thought came into my mind maybe we need to stop praying that these people will be able to talk with us because God is not going to change peoples minds for us he will not change anyone's mind ever, we need to chose for our self's if we want to follow God. So instead of praying for them to want to talk with us we prayed to know what we need to do to help them want to talk with us more, we have not gotten an answer about that one but I have faith that we will be able to be guided by the spirit in knowing what we need to do. I will be sure to keep you all updated on that.

     I did get a chance to teach someone named Thibalt from France, we got a member to help us talk with him in French it was a really cool lesson and we are so happy that he has accepted a baptism date! lessons with people like him are the best! :) 

     I guess the fun thing that was done this week was one I have started a new diet where I eat only salad I have cut simple sugars out of my diet completely this has made me feel a lot better. This morning me and my friend Elder Nelson tried to run around the MTC for half an hour but this morning it was freezing!! so we made it about 15 minutes and then needed to go back inside, 

     Another thing that happened is I drew this big picture on a board and apparently that now makes me the mission artiest Haha fat chance!  well I took a picture of the drawling just for you all I hope that you all have a great rest of your week and I will talk to you all then! 

Elder Jacob Anderson's Latest Letter From The Rio de Janiero Mission

Sometimes it hard being responsible for the work of others. We feel like we are going every thing that we can do help and sometimes it isnt enough. We only have 7 companion ships in our zone. 3 of them have at least one person going home this week and another has a broken new and is not working. I spent the week doing a divions. WITH ALL of the elders. It was cool to see how the Missionaries who have accepted the new goals of the misison are doing there best to meet this goals have litearlly changed.

Our zone had interviews with President this week. We didnt have a single emergency transfer which is really good. The president was happy with us and the rest of the zone.

Today i got on a little later because we playd football and Frisbee with the younger men in our ward. I am literally the color of a lobster. I have never had my legs burn before. THey are soooooooo sooooo burnt. After wards made lunch. We made enough food for an amry.

We couldnt finish.

Other then that the work is going well. We are working a ton here in area. Sometimes it can be difficult because we dont always have the results that we would like but we can let that discourage us.

Jesus is the Christ. His authority still is on the earth today.

Miracles happen every single day. You just need to look for them :)

--

And they call me

Elder Anderson

For behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ

Elder Joseph Anderson's Latest Letter From The Resistencia, Argentina Mission

I dont have a lot of time so I´ll try to be as detailed as I can. This week my companion and I went on divisions in a little town two hours away from our area called San Martin. There is a lot of history with this pueblo and the church. There used to be so many members that attended about 10 years that the church built a giant stake center there. Unfortunatley for one reason or the other a ton of members have gone inactive and only about 20 -25 people attend each sunday. Imagine that many people in our stake center in Charlottesville and you´ll get the idea. 

In this town there is an area kina on the outskirts that is only populated by native people (who everyone here calls aborigenies). They are from an old tribe called Toba and they have there own language. We found a lot of members of the church in this area and we talked to them. I cant help but think that I am talking with the lamanites when we talk with them. A super old man who got baptized a while ago talked with us and we had a lesson with him. He gave the closing prayer in his native language and it was pretty sweet. I learned a few words in Toba and I am going to see if I can learn some more.

Other than that we have found some good new investigators this week. Two are a very youn couple named Eric and Jamila. they have two kids and Eric remembers that when he was only about 7 or 8 years old missionaries came and taught his dad and him and all of his brothers would come and listen to the lessons aswell. they are really great people and we are praying that they will accept the restored gospel in their lives in order to find eternal happiness.

thats all I got. Love you.-

-Elder Anderson

Elder Joshua Anderson's Latest Letter From The Scottsdale AZ Mission

So nothing too exciting happened this week. It is been kinda a depressing week. On Friday we ran into a recent convert who become less active. We tried to set up an appointment where we could come talk to her but she never returned our calls. Well while we were driving down the street we saw her standing on the side of the road so we decided to pull over to say hello. It is really weird because she was the first member I had dinner with in Payson and she was super nice. Anyways, when we pulled over to say "hi" she saw us and just walked to opposite direction. I don't know what happened to her but it is pretty upsetting see somebody come so close to going to the temple and then just giving up. I guess she has problems with women in the Priesthood and gays in the church. 

When we got home we also got a call form Marissa that she is not interested in meeting with us. I asked her if she had prayed about it and she told me that she didn't have to because she knew that she couldn't get baptized. I think she is still afraid about what her parents will think if she gets baptized. I told her to pray and think about it a little more and she can let us know in a couple days if this is really something she wants to do. We also fasted for her on Saturday.

Saturday was supposed to be an awesome day. We had four set lessons but only one of them ended up following through. I feel like I have been working me head off trying to have set lessons and get members to lessons. Lately we have been doing more member lessons, seeing more dropped investigators, and doing a lot of contacting but it just seems like nothing is working. The members are great though and I can see that they really care and that they are really trying to find people for us to teach. It is hard though because 70% of the people in Payson are retired so they don't get too many opportunities to talk to new people. They have already sent to missionaries to their neighbors a dozen times. 

We have been also praying that we will find a family that has been prepared that we can teach. We have literally been talking to every family that we see. If we see a family while we are driving we will stop and talk to them. This is this one family that lives near us that we pulled over to talk to and they said that missionaries for two years have been pulling over to talk to them. they were a nice family but not interested. 

Stake conference was also Saturday night. they talked a lot about faith and that if we have enough faith we will find people to teach! I believe that!  I know that eventually we will fill our teaching pool. We also had stake conference on Sunday and it was pretty awesome. It was again focused on missionary work. The only part that was a little weird was when a return missionary of about three days bore his testimony and he kinda chastised the members. The only person I think can do that is Elder Holland.... 

After conference we went to the park to do some contacting. The weather was amazing so there were a lot of people at the park. We talked to two families there. The second family we talked to was awesome. They were totally dry Mormons. Unfortunately they belonged to a church that has said some really horrible things about the LDS church. So they thought that they already knew everything about our church... And if I had been told what they had been told and I didn't know what I know now i would come within 50 feet of any LDS member. All I could was tell them that I have read the Book of Mormon and I could deny the feeling I felt when I asked God if it was true. I told him that they only way to know for himself if the Book of Mormon is true is to read it and go to the source. It is pretty sad to see a family miss out on the opportunity to be sealed because of false doctrine. 

We also asked texted Marissa to see how everything was going. She was responding to our texts until I asked her if she had a chance to pray about meeting with us. We never got a response after that. so the next day we told her if she was ever interested in meeting with us to just let us know and that we really enjoyed teaching her. Maybe all we were supposed to do with her was plant a seed :/

So anyways this week was a little rough. Things are getting better here and I know that we will find the people that have been prepared here in Payson if we just don't give up and lose faith! the true in is true the sky is blue. 

- Elder Joshua Anderson.

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

Transfers were this Tuesday so we have our P-day today. Last Tuesday we had interviews with president Sweeney. In my interview he told me that we were losing some missionaries so he has to close down some areas. He told me that my new companion would be Spanish speaking and I would take in his area and he would take in mine. So now we cover the Payson Spanish branch, the Christopher Creek branch, and the Ponderosa ward. Luckily I already knew who my companion was because is the other Elder that we shared an apartment with. After the interviews my companion and I went to a Chaplin's meeting. It was just where different ecclesiastical leaders in the community come together to  talk about things that are going on at their churches. I was pretty nervous at first but it turned out to go really well. 

Earlier in the week the nob on my watch broke off so I took it to a member to get it fixed. On Thursday he gave it back to me. Instead of fixing it he just gave me a new watch and put it on the old part. After I got it I noticed that it said it was a Rolex! hahaha no kidding! I'm 99% sure it is fake but I just thought it was so funny when I looked at it and it said it was a Rolex.We also pulled out our bikes that day because we are getting low on our miles. We didn't go too far before my companion's tire popped. So we were back in the car. 

In my last email I talked about how we are doing more member visits to share with them the first lesson. After the lesson we set something up where we come back in two weeks to hear about their experiences. Friday was our first return appointment and we got four referrals! We have already contacted one and she is interested in taking the lessons!

Saturday was a pretty long day. We had to drive up to Snowflake because Elder Curtis had a baptism up there. Because I'm not the designated driver I got to drive all the there and back. I like to drive though is it was all good. On the way back we just drove straight to one of our lessons. His name is David and he talked forever! When we finally got out of there we went to the church so Elder Curtis could do a baptismal interview. 

Well that's about all I can think of! I know this church is true and it blesses lives! 

- Elder Joshua Anderson 

Elder Jacob Anderson's latest letter from Rio

So we had some huge changes on the mission this week...  We have something called a standard of excellence on the mission. Our old goals were 12 Lessons with Member. 15 Others, 20 new investigators, ¨and 6 people in church with baptismal dates. It has been changed that president made new goals. 20 lessons with members, 20 people in church with a baptismal date, 15 others and 60 new investigators ever single week.. Hearing our President and his vision for the misison is really awesome. He is really going to help everybody start to baptize every single week. Or atleast that his goals. Those who will follow the instructions that he gives will have a lot of success on the misison.

I couldn't help but compare our President to Lei in the Book of Mormon this week. Everyone the mission either has a "Nephi or Lemen"

Attitude. I am just blow away with how many missionaries do not have a Nephi like attitude. I pray everyday that the members of the church can show and have more respect for the chosen leaders of the church.

They are called to serve and receive Revelation to help us. Sometimes the things that God wants us todo and what we want to do isnt alway the same thing. Like traveling in the desert to a new land...

As i was reading the book of mormon this week i had a few versus that really called my attention.

"  And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I willprepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep mycommandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep mycommandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and yeshall know that it is by me that ye are led.

 14 Yea, and the Lord said also that: After ye have arrived in thepromised land, ye shall know that I, the Lord, am God; and that I,the Lord, did deliver you from destruction; yea, that I did bringyou out of the land of Jerusalem."

I thought a lot about how this can applied into my life. How many promised blessing i have received in my life. Particularly in the Patrical blessing. I have no idea how i am ever going to arrive where the lord wants me to. Seems so far away and it looks like a journy sooooo impossible. But I know that the lord will act as a light in my life and day by day, moment by moment he will be guiding me to my "promised land." Ye and in the day that i arrive in the "promised land." I will know without doubt!!

Baptism^:)

--

And they call me

Elder Anderson

For behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ

Sister Bridgette Vejnar: Just Another Fast Week has Past!

So on Tuesday I finally made me a meal! I am so proud of myself for actually cooking something! Then we went to our district meeting and then went tracting for a while because our appointment canceled of course! Then the wind really started blowing! We had to go home early at about 7:30 because trees were falling over in the streets, so there was a lot of traffic and closed roads so we were told to just go home, so our appointment that was at 8 didn't cancel but we had to cancel on them! I was pretty mad because they are just moved and they never gave us there number so now we won't be able to see them again unless they call us. They are less actives so who knows what will happen!

On Wednesday it was fun but not progressive at all! We went to go have our interviews with the mission president, so we had to wake up and drive to South San Fran which is about an hour drive and we had to pick up some sisters on the way, and drop them back off and then we went to a dinner with a member and she took us out to eat and bought us on the menu country fried steak! It was really good and then bought us some peach pie, which I am not a fan of pie but that one was pretty good! Then we went to go meet with Anja and our district leader so she could have her interview for baptism! Then we went to our zone movie night because it was New Years Eve. We watched half of Frozen and half of How to Train Your Dragon 2! Then it was 9:15 which means it's time to go, so we had to drive some sisters back to South San Fran and we finally got home at 10:30 and went to bed at 11:30, so close to the New Year but we had to still wake up at 6 so I just went to bed. But I had a letter that night and it was awesome! I love getting mail and packages!

On Thursday we did nothing but tract! But we found an orange tree and picked some! They were SO good! I loved them so now instead of buying oranges we are going to go pick them once a week because we know where a really close orange tree is!

On Friday we had a busy day, we met with a referral and she is really interested in the church! She asked us if she could come to the baptism and church! It was awesome! I am so excited! Then we went to our dinner appointment and had Olimpia, it's Philippine food and it was really good, we also had spaghetti with this sweet sauce, its dark red and tastes good but gross and I cant remember what its called and then we had rice with like a veggie sauce which was also good but gross. It was all from the Philippians.

On Saturday we did our baptism! It was really good! And our investigator or I guess our potential didn't come to the baptism which was really sad but she couldn't get her ex husband to watch there kid for her. Then we just tracted the rest of the day because our appointments all canceled and our dinner canceled, but we found a lemon tree and picked some lemons, I haven't had time to try them yet though!

Then yesterday Sunday none of our investigators came but our less actives came to church which was really exciting! Then we just had a dinner appointment with more Philippians, and we had Olimpia again and then we had a purple yam pie, it tasted like sweet potatoes so I didn't like it but I ate it anyways, because that's the kind of missionary I am. A member who is feeding us this week asked what I liked and I just told him I would eat anything and he said he would make steak if we wanted but I just said anything will work I am just glad to get a meal and he said he might make seafood, should have just stuck with the steak!

Then we also met a potential investigator earlier this week and we couldn't work anything out with his schedule so we gave him a BofM and told him about the call center in the MTC and how he can take the lessons online with missionaries, because he works graveyard and goes to school. I also got a compliment on my teaching, he said I was very bold and very sure about what I was saying and he said it didn't seem like I had only been out a month, he thought I had been out almost a year! So I am very proud of myself!

Sister Vejnar 

Sister Bridgette Vejnar: This has been a hard week!

So this week has been really long, but short. When I think back to things that happened in the week it feels like it was so long ago but then it seems fast because I feel like I just did laundry and I shouldn't have to do it yet, but I do. So nothing interesting happened last Sunday except we went to do a walk around the temple, it was really wet but fun. Then on Monday it was a really sad day because that was our last day with our zone, We all made the best zone ever! We taught Harley for the last time and Harley actually talked and it was a miracle he never told us anything, so it was the best lesson we ever had with him, too bad it was the last lesson with him. Then we taught Luke aka Brother Flinders, it wasn't that good of a lesson but that's what practice is for right? We had to say goodbye to Brother Flinders as well which is really sad because he was the best teacher ever!!! Then we had a last night with our whole zone and just hung out which was way fun but really sad because it was our last night with our zone. Hopefully after all our missions are done our zone can keep in touch, we are all writing each other it's just about getting a hold of each other after the mission. Then Tuesday rolled around and it was our time to pack for California which was stressful because I had to fit 140 lbs into 3 bags, and only 2 can weigh 50 lbs. I don't know how my roommate did it but she managed to fit everything and have more room for more weight! She's amazing!!! Tuesday was pretty boring because the other district wasn't there and it felt like the last day of school because our district was the last ones on that floor in our classroom so it was really quite and I didn't feel like doing anything, but I did because I am still on a mission! Then we had a devotional by Per G. Malm one of the 70's and it was REALLY good! Then after the devotional our district met in our classroom and the elders gave all of the sisters blessings before our mission which was awesome! It was exactly what I needed to hear in my blessing and I know that's because God was speaking through the elders! It was probably the best night of the MTC experience! On Wednesday we woke up at 3:15am to fly to California! We woke up took the shuttle to the train, the train to the tracks and the tracks to the airport. Our flight was at 9:50am and so I called home at the airport which was really awesome! I loved it! Also at the airport this elder came over to my companion and I and asked if we would come be in the room with them with someone wanting a healing blessing so we said yes and after the elder gave the blessing he told us he had a feeling in the MTC to get some oil and have it blessed because he was going to need it before his mission which was really awesome! Then on the flight to California I was just sitting there minding my own business and this guy turned around to me and asked about my name tag and what I was doing and then he was having problems in his life and asked me to pray for him so I did and then after I said it he said he felt peace over come him, like nothing was wrong, so then I taught him a mini lesson and it was awesome! I felt so proud of myself and I felt like if this is how a mission will make me feel after helping others I defiantly want to serve a mission! Then we arrived and it felt and smelled like a rain forest! It is so green here! They have been in a drought so it has been raining a ton! It's a little cold but still awesome to be here! We went to a little Chinese restaurant and I tried sushi for the first time. Not good...But they eat a lot of fish and varieties of different culture food so I have to get used to trying new things. We went to the temple just to look at it and all the Christmas lights are up and it's SO pretty! My favorite temple is still Oquirrh Mountain and Salt Lake City though. It was getting closer to switching companions though so I was starting to get nervous and sad and excited! I had a roller coaster of emotions so I just kept in mind the scripture one of the elders in my last zone showed me and it has helped a lot with everything being so new! It's 2 Nephi 22:2, then I got my new companion her name is Sister Tadevosyan, she is from Armenia. She can't drive so guess what that means! Yep I'm the designated driver which really stressed me out because I don't know where anything is and I don't know what the speed limits are and I don't know how there roads are setup, so our mission president told me to go drive around for about an hour and if I still was nervous then I could switch companions to someone who could drive but I stuck with it and I am glad I did because I love driving it makes me feel in charge, less like a trainee. On Thursday we didn't do much we just went to the store and went to a meeting thing for all new missionaries about safety and what we were allowed to do and what not to do so it was a lot to take in. We visited a recent convert named Latisha and she is really touchy, feely so I didn't really like that but she is super nice, she just turned 22 and is doing really well from before what was happening in her life. Then we went street contacting and I just watched for the first day. On Friday we didn't end up leaving our house till 3pm which is really late and then we went to the store and then to a dinner with some investigators and our investigator has a baptism date for January 3rd. Which is awesome! Even though I don't know her or never taught her it's still awesome! Then we went to another investigators house and it stunk of smoke and they are really bad hoarders so that was kind of scary but they are good people, they just don't want to be apart of the church, we just read scriptures with them and pray. Then we went to Latisha's house again and just said a prayer with her and left, we went to visit her because it was her birthday, so that was fun. Then Saturday we woke up, went excising and then did studies and then we went to a district meeting which Sisters take over Elders once again 3 sets of sisters including my companionship and 1 set of elders. Then we did more street contacting and found a potential investigator named Rudy, so maybe we will have a new investigator. Then we went to the Perez' house to help wrap presents, for service hours which was fun, and the Perez family is really great. Then Sunday we went to church and at church a girl came in and wanted to talk to us because she had just moved to California and just looked up the closest church to her house and it was our church, so we couldn't get her to do a discussion with us because she wants to get to know our church more than what we told her so we gave her all the pamphlets, and a Book of Mormon to read and she said she might come to church on Sunday now that she knows what time it is, so hopefully after the holidays we can get a visit with her and start teaching her! Then we went street contacting some more and found a guy (I'm pretty sure he's gay) but he seemed kind of interested so you never know maybe he could change and become Mormon but who knows. We also got a referral about a lady and she wanted a Book of Mormon so we gave her one, she was busy when we went over but after the holidays we are going to get a hold of her again and see if we can teach her or if she read any of the Book of Mormon. So we have 3 potential investigators, 3 investigators, 1 with a baptismal date and 4 recent converts. Our ward is really small but the members are really supportive, so that's good. On Sunday we also went to a members house for dinner and he made the best cookies ever! They were chocolate chip with peppermint in them! They were really good. There are so many different cultures here it's crazy! I forgot to say I'm serving in the South San Fransisco area, right next to the ocean. We have our own apartment and I drive. It's pretty awesome. I can't believe Christmas is on Thursday! That's crazy It doesn't even feel like Christmas! But I am super excited to skype with my family! I can't wait. I hate that I'm gone for the holidays but it's okay, I only have a year in a half to serve the Lord. My companion doesn't like meat or candy or anything unhealthy. She only eats fruit and bread from Armenia, so I always think shes hungry because I barely see her eat! It's crazy! Hopefully we get some more investigators! This is gonna be a crazy week but full of fun things and hard things to do!

Sister Bridgette Vejnar: Second Week in the MTC!

 So I guess I didn't give enough information on my companion, or district. My companions name is Sister Huefner pronounced Huffner just think of hufflepuff. She is from Bear lake, Utah and my whole district is going to my same mission. We fly out Wednesday of this week and have to be at the airport at 4 in the morning, it's going to be a long day!!! I am convinced I have the best district and zone! everyone is awesome! We have 10 Elders total in our zone and 4 Sisters in our zone (including me) in our district we have 4 Sisters and 2 Elders.

So last Saturday after I sent my letter I went to the temple with my zone and Elder Vejnar and his companion, then I painted my nails and was happy again and today I will probably do the same.

On Sunday it was fast Sunday and I actually wasn't starving! We heard from Elder Bednar, it was a video not live, but in that he said we are like the cookie monster and we want what we want and when we want it which is now, and he said to burst your bubbles elders and sisters, a mission is not about you, and if you think it is you are in for a huge surprise, because missionary work is not about you it's about being selfless and never thinking of yourself. So that was a really good talk for me and for everyone else to hear I feel. We also did a walk around the Provo temple and took some pictures. It was really fun to get out and enjoy fresh air. Also we had a meeting in the morning right after sacrament with everyone in the MTC and sang the BEST version of Called to Serve, it was pretty powerful!

On Monday we woke up to do a service project which was to clean the bathrooms, only the girls though, I just don't understand how girls can get a bathroom that dirty in a week. So after that we got dressed and went to class but found out it was gym time, so for me I would have just been fine studying or going on a walk or something but my companion loves to work out so we went to change and go to the gym, I just run a mile and do some weight lifting when I go, I guess I'm glad my companion likes to work out or I would probably gain my MTC weight. I haven't lost or gained any weight so that's very good especially to see how I eat compared to what my companion chooses to eat. We then proceeded to study after gym time and went to lunch and then we went to teach through a program called TRC, I don't know what it stands for but what we do is get a random person to teach, we don't know if they are members acting like investigators or actual investigators so we just teach them like investigators. We got a lady named Barbara, She is about 60yrs, married for 40yrs, no kids, grew up Jewish and Catholic, went to a bunch of different churches but doesn't really know what she wants to learn from us. So we went in excited and ready to teach her about the restoration, yeah that didn't really work because she didn't even know who God was and if he was a person and what he does so we just focused on his love for us and what he does for us and prayer. We invited her to pray at the end of the lesson and really pushed it but said she wouldn't pray until she knew God was a real person and that she was in his image. So we kind of struggled with teaching her. Next we taught our teachers mocking an investigator as Harley, I think it was our best lesson we had ever taught yet, but we still didn't do very well asking enough questions. We then taught Luke we talked on Gods Love for him but we were thinking he wouldn't understand like our other investigators but he learns really fast so we had a short lesson, we underestimated him.

Tuesday we worked with Barbara again and we showed her a scripture that God is real and he is a person and she had never heard that before so she was just in huge shock and just talked about that the whole time and how he would make this earth to everyone's liking and how would he know what was beautiful and smelled good if he didn't have a body and senses so it was really awesome but she still wouldn't pray. We went to go see Elder Vejnar and take pictures and then to the gym, I got a 10 minute mile which is really good for me! We went to a devotional that night and had Elder and Sister Zwich from the 70...I don't know how to spell his last name. There granddaughter who is like 10yrs sang a couple of songs and she is really good! She sang for the president and sang with David Archaleta? Don't know how to spell that either but she was really good. Then Sister Zwick  played a video her granddaughter made for all the missionaries and it was so cute! It was awesome! I also earned the name Marvel from Elder Tupe because we talked about superheros and he's pretty cool. It was really busy but really good.

Wednesday we taught Harley and he is shy so it's hard to see what he is understanding but I think the lesson went well. Before we teach Barbara the Elders go before us and Barbara is a story teller, she loves to talk and she is really hard to keep on track with the lesson, so the elders went and took all our time to teach and there time so we had to give her a 10 minute lesson in order to be on time for our next class and it was hard because she just wanted to talk, but we taught her and she actually prayed! So mission accomplished for now. So then we taught Luke again and we taught on the plan of salvation, everything was going really well and he was understanding everything and he stayed intrested but then we got to the 3 degrees of glory and here's how it went. I said "So the celestial kingdom is where you go if you are a good member/person and keep progressing in like, the terrestrial kingdom is where you go wehn you hear about our church but are not interested, so if you decide to drop us then that's where you will go." And then Luke said "So your saying if I don't listen to you then I'm not going to the better place?" And my companion said "Well it's like 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place." And Luke just said "So I'm going to be in 2nd place if I don't go to your church and listen to you?" My companion and I had no idea what to say so we just looked at each other and gave him the plan of salvation pamphlet and invited him to read it and we bore our testimonies and left. It was so funny afterward but I'm glad we made the mistake on him because really he's our teacher instead of in the field.

Thursday our lesson with Barbara was awesome and when we were about to leave she asked us when we could come back but TRC is a 4 day thing so we told her we couldn't and swapped emails but I was really sad that we got her to progress so much! We also had a service project at 6:15am so we had to wake up way before we usually do. We dusted pictures and cleaned water fountains.

Friday was really long we had In-Field Orientation and we learned how to go up to random people and just talk to them about our church which was really hard for me but I will get better. We taught Luke but didn't we just talked to him and found out what we thought he understood he wasn't understanding so we have to kind of start over.

Every night we do a get to know you thing with our zone and it's so much fun, we have the best zone ever. I also found caffeine free Mountain Dew, So I can finally try it. This week went by super fast, we are really busy! We fly to California Wednesday! Also if you want to send a missionary a letter and have them get it the same day or the next day, use dearelder.com 

Well I have to go but I am having such a wonderful experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world

Sister Bridgette Vejnar: First Week in the MTC!

So this was so not what I expected. I heard the food was gross but it's actually pretty good. I was nervous about getting a companion I wouldn't like but we have so much in common! It's awesome! We both did landscaping before our mission, we both love painting our nails, we both shower every night (which is good because I didn't want to annoy her from my habit) we both like about the same types of food, we both have blonde hair and blue eyes, her hair is a little more blonde than mine though. We share a room with one other companionship and they are also in my district but there is 6 beds so we have a lot of space. Our whole district is my companion and I, a set of sisters and a set of elders. It's awesome, in our zone we have about 10-12 elders and just us 4 sisters. So it's pretty intimidating. They are really cool thought. We usually study all morning and then a little bit after lunch and then at 2:15 we have a teacher come in and help us get ready to teach our investigators. We have 3 teachers and 4 mock investigators. Our investigators are Harley, Luke, Steven and then we will be introduced to our 4th investigator on Monday. Harley is really hard to teach, he is very shy and we only get about a 2-3 word answer when we ask him things. We invited him to say the closing prayer and he declined but I know from all the practice I've had my companion and I can get him to say the next closing prayer. Harley wants to know that God loves him and he wants to believe there is a God but he doesn't feel sure about it. Our last lesson was really awkward and embarrassing!!! My companion and I taught him about the restoration of the gospel and we had about a 10 minute lesson instead of a 20-30 minute lesson and during the closing prayer my companion called him the wrong name so I started laughing a little bit and then my companion did and Harley was just staring at us strangely! When we left we busted out into laughter, I felt so embarrassed! When we met with Steven next we were just getting to know him and tried to know what he wanted or needed to know first, so wasn't really anything big. Our lesson with Luke was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! We also taught him on the restoration of the gospel and just so you have an idea his religious background was all over the place he has never stuck with a religion. When we told him about Joseph Smiths experience with how he knew things were right but was missing something, Luke said he could relate and he felt the church's had truth but none of them felt like home. That made the lesson even more powerful because he could relate. We invited him to say the closing prayer and he said he wasn't comfortable doing it we asked him why and reasured him that we don't care if he messes up or doesn't think he knows how God just wants to hear from him and know that he wants a relationship with him. So he said the closing prayer. We also asked him to go to church on Sunday because he went to a YSA activity before and loved it, so we thought he could go to church and see if it felt like home, we gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to keep praying and if he wanted to, to read the BOM, the reason for that is because he thought our church was just like any other church, making things up and telling what we want people to hear, so we gave him the BOM to relate it to the Bible if he wanted to. After the lesson was over we invited him to be baptized! Even though it was the first lesson, in our class we had learned that it's not hard to do, he said he wasn't sure and that he'd have to think about it, so we invited him to come to a baptism to see what its like. He said he would come and was really excited about it, on Monday we are going to teach him about the atonement. I am so excited.

This week I learned so much more about prayer than I ever thought I would. I love it here in the MTC even though it feels like I've been here for a month, the days are really long but I am excited for the decision I've made and I'm excited to get into the field. 

It still is weird to hear Elders and Sisters instead of Brothers and Sisters and its weird to be called Sister Vejnar all the time and it's hard to not call everyone guys all the time and I hate not being able to chew gum but I love this experience. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Sister Vejnar

P.S. Pictures to come, and if you're all wondering I saw Elder Vejnar the 2nd day I was here at lunch or dinner, I cant remember, and my companions name is Sister Huefner.

Elder Joseph Anderson's Latest Letter From The Resistencia Argentina Mission

Elder Anderson Feeds a Horse a Mango

Elder Anderson eats beef heart and mashed potatoes

Elder Anderson Enjoys Christmas Dinner with his Zone

Super duper crazy week!!!!!!  To start off, we had transfers in the mission on the 31 of December and the 31 is a surpisingly busy day of travel down here in Argentina. Everybody is going to celebrate new years with their family by having a huge bbq argentine style, listining to some really wierd folk music called chamamaine, and drinking champain until about 5 or six in the morning. Haha funny story we found a group of teenagers on the 1 at around 7 oclock in the evening and they had still not slept from the party on the 31. We asked them why they hadnt gone to sleep yet and they told us they needed to start the new year "strong". They looked liked straight zombies with a lot of beer and cigarrettes. Anyway, because the bus stations were going to be so busy on the 31 we had to go on the 30 and buy all the tickets for all the missionaries that were going to be passing through the bus station in Resistencia. That took us all day and the next day we were at the bus station all day directing all the missionaries to their new areas. Its a pretty crazy experience but super exciting too. My companion and I worked together to get everything done and for once in a long time nobody missed their bus.

Also, on Saturday our zone had interviews with President. The asistents called us on friday and told us to prepare a capacitación for the zone while each companionship was being interviews. We trained our zone on chapter 9 of PMG and it was a great experience. At the end we played a huge game of trivia regarding only things found in PMG. 

My interview with President Franco was really nice. He seemed a little bit tired because he had been interviewing missionaries since 8 in the morning and I was the last missionary of the day at 5:30 pm. He told me to make goals for this year and put them together with my patriarical blessing and everytime i go over my goals I should read my patriarical blessing aswell. It is great advice and something I am definately going to do once I decide on some set goals for this year. 

My companion and I have found some new investigators that seem very very promising, so we are fasting and praying that they will keep progressing and come to church on sunday. Well thats all I got for now. 

CHow CHOW.

-Elder Anderson (Joe)

Playing Trains Over Christmas Break

Playing Trains Over Christmas Break

Alisha gives Instagram posting advice

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Elder Jacob Anderson's latest letter from Rio

Soo the highlight of this week is Alef was baptized!!! It was awesome it was soo cooooooooll to seem him change. He is a very bright future ahead of him! The gospel will refine his life and he will become something he could have never even imagine before.. We have already made goals with him to get the Priesthood so he can baptize his brothers and sister as well in the next few weeks ;) They are all super excited about that!!

Me and my comp are really focusing on finding people. Our mission president wants us to baptize semanalmente!! The 70 who visited us told us this is a realistic goal. So we need to find around 60 new people to teach and invite to be baptized every single week. We just need to start talking to the whooole world. Its easy to be a missionary when you are teaching or visiting member. But we need to focus on being missionaries every moment of the day.

This week i thought a lot about his scripture.. "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of theLamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church ofthe Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who werescattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed withrighteousness and with the power of God in great glory."

 As members of the church we have a right to this promise. When we are righteous we have the promise of 1- power of God and 2- Great glory.

We shouldnt be ashamed at any moment. But we should excel to bebetter every moment. we will receive more and more. We have the capasidade to do sooo much!! look to the Lord for help and he will bless you. Read the scriptures looking for answers. The Book of Mormon was written for us. Literally. The prophets who wrote it had visions about us and wrote wrote it for us.