Elder Jacob Anderson's Latest Letter From Rio de Janeiro

So this week we spent 2 day listening to Elder Aidikitais. IT was really good. I feel like i am going to be start my mission now. I have a ton of things that i need to change! The biggest thing that I took away is the God is a planner. He planned the world perfectly. He plans so well he already knows the result. We are here on the mission to learn how to make goals and then makes PLANS to achieve them. I have made a lot of goals through out the mission but i havent always had the detailed plans i needed to help me achieve those goals. I have under a year to repent and change. I will learn to be a planner and a goal setter.

I have been studying the BOM very slowly this week and i stopped to study the Tender Mercies of the Lord. The very individual and personally blessing in our lives.. I started to make a list everyday and my first thought was I need to start doing this more often, its kinda hard I am not very grateful! Then as I thought about it even more I realized that maybe my problem isnt being more greatful but I just need to be more obedient so I can receive these Tender Mercies..

Yeah maybe I just do better at them both!

--

And they call me

Elder Anderson

For behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ

Elder Ray Vejnar's Latest Letter From the Provo MTC Media Mission

So this week I feel like things are starting to turn around for me and my companion, we have been having a little bit of a rough time finding people that want to learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, but this week we got to work and looked at what we could do in order to gain more trust from our heavenly father to teach his children, and the one thing that stood out to us is that we would be a lot more organized here we had a lot of useful tools to help us out but we where not using them to the fullest that we could have used them. This turned into our thing to work on for the week, and wouldn't you know it when we got things figured out we started to find people again! We got two new investigators named Jeanie and Ruth, Jeanie is the fun one to teach right now because I have never taught someone who believes in ancient Egyptian god's. But already she is making changes in her life and we have not even begun to do things like that yet so it is great to be able to see that in her life. Ruth has been bouncing all over the place with religion and now believes that this church is true and just wants to know how to join, so we have begun teaching her and things are looking up! I believe to have the Lord trust in us we need to show Him that he can trust us! and that was my goal for this week I am glad that I have again been able to gain some trust from my heavenly father back. 

     In other news My sister, Sister Vejnar is in the MTC right now and I have become one of the biggest stalkers in the MTC right now because I have a computer I have her schedule and know right where she is supposed to be every hour of every day, so I am able to meet up with her when I want and when I think it would be an appropriate time to do so.  I have yet to snag a picture with her but I will get one before she leaves, mostly because if I do not my call home on Christmas to my mom will not be very fun haha. speaking of my mother I am very thankful to have her in my life she has been a great help on my mission and has also provided me with so many little gifts and things it is great I love you so much mom thanks a tun! also to my grandmother's who have both sent me letters and gifts that have brightened my day each time I get one! well I do not have much time left and I don't want to write to much of a book but thanks again to all who have been a support in my life! and on my mission, I wish you all the best and enjoy the Holiday Season. 

Elder Vejnar  

Sister Bridgette Vejnar's First Mission Letter From the MTC Inroute To The Oakland California Mission

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

Yesterday my Companion from Peru decided to cook me one his favorite dishes, Cow-stomach sterfri....I have had cow stomach three times before in cooked three different ways and I told him that I wasn´t a huge fan but I told him that I trusted him and I would eat it if he made it. For those of you who have cooked cow stomach before (I´m not sure how big of an audience you are) It tends to stink like gym locker room when you are boiling it, so yesterday our apartment brought back some good old highschool memories of all the sports I played and all the time I spent in nasty lockerooms. The finished product wasnt too bad but I told him that it would be 10 times better with just regular meet...so there is not need to make the dish with cow stomach!!

The reason I didnt write yesterday is because all of the city buses were on strike and there is nowhere in our area to write and it rained pretty hard so we just chilled in the apartment almost all day and cooked and cleaned.

As I´m sure everybody knows, the whole month on December the church is sending our a huge message called "He is the Gift". We are going to be handing our special cards all this month and showing the small video to members and investigators. However, I´m not sure how much the people here are going to be able to relate to the video because Christmas here doesnt involve lights, presents, Santa Clause, or Christmas trees. Just fireworks and a party at midnight Christmas Eve and sleeping all Christmas day. However the true meaning of Christmas is still not really recognized her so the video are cards will help.

My companion and I have been talking to a surpirising amount of evangelicals, even a few pastores. We have also found a few good investigators that we are really excited for.

I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I read it everyday and everyday I am strengthend spiritually, mentally, and physically. I know that it contains the fullness of the gospel and that it testifies of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I invite everyone to read it daily and experience the changes it makes in lives.

Love you all tons

Nos Vemos CHow CHow!!

-Elder Anderson

Elder Jacob Anderson's Latest Letter From The Rio De Janeiro Mission

So pretty funnnyy... The other day we had to go to another area to do a few interviews.. this is always good! The bus are pretty packed but when I get sit down I usually sleep. On the way back from the interviews it was kinda late so I started to "nod off." My comp told me about after 10 min of this I just fell asleep and I started to fall out of the sit. My face feel into this women's chest. Yeah thats pretty awkward. I woke up immediately and said sorry. She had been watching me doze off so she knew it was an accident and just thought it was funny. My comp thought it was pretty funny to. I just went right back to sleep...

So me and my comp just worked worked worked worked this week we taught

22 lessons with members, we taught 26 others, 11 with Less actives and found 23 new investigators. That plus the good news didnt end sunday.

Normally you have a lot of baptismal dates and then no one shows up to church. We had 8 people show up to church on Sunday. So we have 8 people that have baptismal dates and are on the right track to be baptized...Then we had a baptism Sunday night.. We walked like crazyy too. I am not sure how we managed to do everything we did. We walked at least 8 miles every single day. Some days we walked 13 miles. Its just weeks like this when I can say we were trully blessed. We have so many weeks that you just work soo hard through the week and then you feel like it all goes down the drain sunday.

Elder Aidikitais will be visiting the mission this week. So he will talk to all the zone Leaders tomorrow. Then he we spend the rest of the week speaking to the entire mission. Thursday I will teach our zone what Elder Aidikitais taught us. Should be fun.

Everyday I read The Book of Mormon I am profoundly suprised how many different ways the I can be inspired. Its pretty amazing. I will start to reading this time focusing on a few new topics. I will contiune to look for Gospel of Christ; Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost and endure to the end, But I will inculding Love and Charity, Humility and Pacience. I am contunily amazed how the Book of Mormon can change our lifes. If you still havnt had the chance, Read it. If you still dont know. Ask through pray until you are completely sure that you have received an answer from God.

--

And they call me

Elder Anderson

For behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ

Elder Joshua Anderson's latest letter from the Scottsdale Arizona Mission

So the highlight of this week was Thanksgiving! I have never eaten so much food in one day before. We first had a Thanksgiving meal with a family at 1:00pm. It was really good and we ate a lot of food. Then right after that we went to another Thanksgiving meal at 2:00PM. It was also really good but I thought that I was going to explode. Then we when to have dessert at another member's home. We spent most of our time at member's homes because we were only aloud to go teach somebody if we had a set appointment. So we did get to teach a couple people but not as much as we normally do.

Anyways, we are teaching this Native American women named Sharon. She is a little slow but is super nice and we love teacher her. We found out the last time we taught her that she was homeless for four months until a stranger come to her and told her to get in his car. luckily this guy was a saint and took her to a homeless shelter. And from there she got in contact with a case manager who found her a place to stay. The sad part is that her mother an sister live in Phoenix and would not let her live with them. But she is progressing towards baptism. It was so funny, we got to her to the Mesa temple lights and the whole time she just kept saying wow.

We are also still teaching our investigator Mereciana from West Africa. We are going to do family home evening with them and another family member in the ward tonight at the Mesa temple lights. It should be good.

Some fun contacting story is that I talked to this guy on the street and it turns out he is a pastor for another church. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon by showing him the pictures in front of the Book of Mormon and explaining them to him. He was kinda nice... then he asked me what my name was and I told him Elder Anderson. Then he wanted my first name.... and I gave it to him.... I should not have done that. He started to just call me by my first name, which I never told him he could do. Anyways, it was interesting how the whole mood changed when he started calling my first name, it didn't feel right. Next time somebody on the street asks me what my first name is I wont crack under pressure and tell them that for the next two years my first name is Elder.

well that's about all for this week!

- Elder Joshua Anderson 

Elder Ray Vejnar's latest mission letter

     So first off I would like to say sorry I missed my e mail last week I forgot to write it but last week not much happened, this week however was a lot of fun.

     This week started out as just another normal week, We had one really strange lesson with someone named Jeanie. she is a nice lady that believe is the ancient Egyptian god's we talked about some of the things that she believes and some of the things that we believe and as we talked about what we believe she became more interested and more interested we got to the end of the fist lesson and asked her how she felt about what we had talked about and she said with a really big smile " I am really excited" I am as well. I think that she will take to the truth really quickly and be very open to what we have to say. we have another lesson with her next week and we will talk to her then.

     Then comes turkey day! so one thing that they do when there is a holiday is shut down all the chats that would come into mormon.org that means that we do not have anyone to talk to and none of the people we have to teach like to talk on holidays so we basically followed the schedule that the rest of the MTC had, and it was actually really cool I think that we had it a lot better than the rest of the MTC.

      So to start the morning off we went to breakfast it was not much but that is ok because we need to have room for the rest of the days food, right! Anyway strait from food we went to a devotional where Elder Bednar of the quorum or the 12 apostles and his wife spoke to us. Elder Bednar likes to do the "Q" and "A" thing when he speaks with people. He passed out 700 cell phones, and a number showed up on on the big screens. Elder Bednar told us to think of questions that we would like to ask him and text those questions to that number. Now he did not read the question that I had asked, but I did have a question in mind, and honestly I was not expecting it to be answered. None of the questions that Elder Bednar answered even came close to what my question was, but I did get an answer to my question. so I wrote down the answer to my question and just as I was thinking, well it is cool that I got my answer but that was just me thinking about it for a log time, and I finally thought up an answer that worked. Just as I thought this Elder Bednar comes in and says something like, there are hundreds of questions that I did not get to answer, but the Holy Ghost has answered them for you, that is a miracle in and of its self. This blew my mind I do not know why it did, but it did. I thought that it was really cool to think that the answers to spiritual questions come from the spirit and each time they are answered it is a miracle!

     After the devotional the MTC did a big service project in witch we packaged food for a Utah food bank, I am not sure what one it was for, that was a lot of fun and I got to do the packing and taping up boxes. I think that the best part was when who else but Elder Bednar decided that he wanted to visit, he came in and walked right past me he looked like he was in a hurry so I did not try to stop him, however he did almost bump into my solder so that was a lot of fun to help out with. Because of this service project the MTC was going to skip dinner because it was a holiday and they wanted to give all the staff the night off, so wile the rest of the MTC got sack dinners for thanksgiving we had a family take us out to dinner it was so much fun and the food was a lot better than a sack dinner I am sure. when we got back to the MTC it was movie time, the movie that they where showing was Meet the Mormons it was great and I have wanted to see that movie sense they announced the movie. once that was done the night was over and we when to bed a little early it was nice to get the extra sleep. That really raps up what Thanksgiving is like in the MTC oh yeah and the last thing that they did was on the way back to our rooms they had Christmas lights up and Christmas music playing, can you believe it they did not even wait tell Thanksgiving was over to start Christmas. :(  

     That was the week though, I love the mission every second of it and I am grateful for the chance I have to serve one. love you all and hope that your weeks and thanksgivings where as good as mine! 

Elder Vejnar