Monday, December 30, 2013

Whats rumblin or crumblin?

Hahah this week was a boss n sauce:D:D Hahaha yay for christmas with no familia right?? hahaha nah it wasn't that bad:D:D:D We just made our time useful like studying and doing things that we needed to do:D:D:D 

But to quickly just explain a little bit about our christmas... we woke up and we heard all the bells of santa just leaving the roof of our house and all the mice were singing "It's a Small World" and we  just knew that if we left out beds in that moment that santa was going to take all of our presents and replace it with coal so we stayed in our beds and just waited out those sickeningly long 10 minutes until santa left out roof. and when he left we came out of our beds being carried by all of the happy little singing mice..... hahah yeah right.. it was more like we became rebels and slept in just past 6:20am and gave ourselves sufficient time to prepare to do some exercise and then we ate breakfast, showered, talked for a bit, and then we just barely got around to being able to open up the presents that we had there:D:D Hahah, and that was a pretty good time i'm not going to lie:D:D But after we opened those up we did some more p 90 x and then could think of nothing to do in our house ( because we have to stay in our house because of all of the drunk people in the street.) so we decided to do some practices and i read about 3 chapters in the book of mormon looking up and learned every word that i didn't know as i went. and then... we ran to eat (at the members house i skyped from on Christmas Eve) and as we were coming back from eating we were walking in the road and we walked through one of the street parties that were going on, they had bigger basses than i have ever seen or heard in my life. you won't believe what song came on right as we were passing by, yeah...you guessed it. it was electronic trap:D:D:D Hahaha so right as we passed the basses that were bigger than me, the drop hit and honestly shook the houses around us and the doors on the cars and... yeah that was pretty sick:D:D:D (almost died) hahah not really we lived:D:D:D  And then we came back from eating and did another session of p 90 x and then i read some more in the book of mormon and learned some more in the fountain of eternal knowledge that i need to know here in mexico.:D:D  and... yeah that is about it... hahah needless to say it was a very very very good day;D :D:D:D And then yeah... we just worked and worked for the rest of the week.

One of our investigators believes he is a werewolf:D:D And yeah.. i don't know if i can say much more, but it is always interesting to talk to him as he is always explaining that we probably should not come over to his house when it is close to a full moon because he always wakes up in the night and feels his mouth and nose pushing out and becoming more like a snout and his feet growing and yeah.... but he is progressing really really well. He has been searching for a church for about 2 years now and he came to church this last week and loved every bit of it and i even had the opportunity to talk to him and answer one of his questions that he had during one of the classes so.. yay for understanding and being able to respond to a question! 

You know that guy that i talked to you about how he just came to church and he was not baptized? Yeah so we baptized him this week and that was a great experience to be able to do. especially when the water heater is not working, i tell the guy that the water may be a bit cold right before we enter;D;D Hahaha yeah... needless to say he was a little shocked when it was freakin freezing:D:D Hahaha but i just told him to bend his knees and I would rip him out of the water as fast as i could:D:D:D So i did the ordinance and pulled him out as fast as i could and well... he was gasping a lil bit, but he was really happy in the way that he felt and I was glad for the opportunity to do the ordinance right this time.:D:D:D so that was a great experience to be able to do that with a friend:D:D:D

and hahah something funny that happened this week:D:D so right before christmas i had not cut my hair in about a month and so right after we taught this lady who knows how to cut hair we asked her if she had time to cut our hair right now. :D:D and so as it comes to my turn to cut my hair the only thing i tell her is that i just want it shorter so i look more like a missionary:D:D hahah and with those instructions she just went to town and after she got done i was very pleased with it. it was definitely very different than any hair cut i have had before:D:D:D:D so we left and right when we left her house my comp turned to me and said, "she gave you a VERY mexican looking hair cut." So.. right now i am rollin in mexico trying to convert people with a hair style that is very close to theirs:D:D Hahah now all i need to do is grow out a mexi stache:D:D 

Today is my p-day and I had the best day I have had in the four months of being here.:D  My companion and I spent our entire p-day making, baking and frosting cakes with our Bishop.  I took cooking for many years at Lone Peak and always volunteered to do the dishes if the girls in my class would do the cooking.:D:D  I can see I gave up the best part of the kitchen.  But I am making up for all the lost years of cooking at Lone Peak here in Mexico.  I never thought I would consider myself a "baker" but I am truly a natural.:D:D These New Years cakes is how our bishop helps support his family while he goes to school.  I loved having the chance to help him help his family, even though my family wondered why I hadnt emailed all day:D:D:D

This Saturday we get to travel an hour and a half to attend a sealing at the Mexico City Temple.  I am hoping that by some small miracle I will get to see Keaton De jong and Ali Ball. :D:D:D So far Heaven has smiled upon me many times here in Mexico and I am hoping for a major miracle to see my old pals.:D

well.. this week was really good and... i can only look forward for this upcoming week to try and make it better than the last:D:D:DD God speed and good luck:D:D:D Les amo mucho:D:D

This picture is being posted without Grays permission.  He was given this poster for Christmas from his district leader and doesn't want anyone to think he isn't focused.  Please don't say anything to Gray about me posting this, but it was just too funny not to share! (The prophet's picture is on the other side:D)

Monday, December 23, 2013

CHRISTMAS! :D

Hahahaha this week was an adventure in and of itself. Well... at least i believe it was... 

(Because still i really can't understand what in the world is going on. :D)

So to start out pretty much this week was a flop when it comes to literally all your appointments falling in a day and those people that you do visit are to afraid to introduce us to the man at the end of the street because "He is a Catholic". So that pretty much how our days were flowin. Practically walking all day and contacting people in the street just searching for new investigators. And finally when Saturday came rollin around we just were not so sure how well this day was going to go because looking back at our past success in the week (hahaha yeah thats a joke because we really didn't have any ;D) but as i had just found this name of where this less active lady lived we thought that we would just give her a visit and see why she has not come to church in a while. And as we show up the lady looked so grateful that we had come by. when we asked if her and her husband had time to hear a message she told us that her husband had a lot of work to do so they didn't have time to hear a message. but the hermana told us that there was a less active that is really sick and that she would like a blessing. So she went with us to this house of the less active that i have never met in my 3 months here in this area. AND COME TO FIND OUT! she isn't home... but i had just learned this last sunday that only about 1/8 of the members of our Ward actually go to church so i knew that there were a ton of less actives here, i just don't know where they live. So i asked the lady if she knew where anymore less actives lived. And that's when the lady just went off pointing and showing us house after house after house that had less actives and that is not even all. She ran into 2 people that she knew in the street. And she introduced us, got us an appointment, bore her testimony about all the blessings that she has received and how she wants the same for them and their families and that's why she was presenting us. So... pretty much with that lady in that hour we found about 10 families that are less active and, on top of that, the 2 investigators that she set us up with. So after that time in the day we just continued to work and now it's like 8:30 and we needed one more lesson. So we headed over to a family that is close by our house and... they were not home..... but we found a guy that was selling bread in the street so we started to talk with that lovely child of God and come to find out that he has actually been searching for a church that just "feels right".  And he told us that he was interested in hearing a message from us right now (what a coincidence ((however in the flipping world you can spell that Word :D))). So we taught the lesson that we needed and got another investigator. And now we are feeling pretty good with our work that day. But as we were heading back to the house I remembered that I didn't have milk for the next day. So I quickly swung by a store to buy milk and... They were out.. Crap... So I remembered Elder Hernández talking about a store in a street that we never walked on before. So we quickly ran to the store I bought my milk and right when we were about to walk away a man just came up to us and asked us if we are in some sort of spanish program here in mexico (because, given, 2 white boys in Mexico kinda stands out if ya know what I mean). Hahaha nah... we told him that we are missionaries and we then asked him how long does he want to be with his family and kids. And that's when he explained to us that he would like to be with his family for as long as God will allow him to be. And he continued with how he is really frightened of dying because after this life there is just nothing. So we explained to him that our message is to help people come closer to Christ and how he can have his family forever. Hahaha and then he asked us,"So when can you guys come over?" So... that was quite the adventure and kind of a Best 2 Years movie experience because in that moment i just wanted to get food.  It turned out to be that we got a new investigator because of my indigestion :D:D Hahah it's inspiration. Nah... more like indigestion :D But yeah.. we ended that day with like 10 new less active families and 4 possible new investigators :D

Oh yeah... and my comp was santa at the Ward Christmas party:D:D

and during church an old investigator came to church and said he was ready to be baptized! so we made sure that everything was all good and he is getting baptized next Sunday :D

And yupp... that's just about it ladies and gents. not too much, but just enough. 

Hasta Luego:D:D

Monday, December 16, 2013

Bendiciones con tiempo?
(Blessings with time?)

Well.... this week was unbelievable fantastic:D:D:D To start i just want to say that the one thing that i learned from Elder Hernandez is that hell does not last for ever:D:D Yupp... that is all i learned from him in 3 months:D:D But my next comp is freakin sick! His name is Elder Lee and he is an American:D:D I have never worked harder and never been more satisfied with my days of work:D:D (Given i still don't do much) :D I am learning all the things that i should have in the first 3 months of my mission.

But first i just want to write about the baptism of Laticia:D:D Hahaha man we really had to work hard for her to overcome her fear that the Jehovah Witnesses have given her. Because firstly we swung by to her house to finish teaching her what she was still needing to know and reminded her that she had her interview in 2 days. And when we were passing by her candy stand the next day she told us that she was going to be leaving tomorrow way early and not going to return until next tuesday. Hahaha we felt like she was not telling the truth so we asked where she was going and thats when she told us that she really didn't need to go anywhere. She told us that she did want to be baptized but her sister and some Jehovah Witnesses are feeding her pure fear of her decision to be baptized. We just told her that if she still felt good about it she should continue on with her decision. And that she should not be doing this decisions for anyone but herself and for her own good and if she felt like it was the right thing for her to do:D:D And so after that we peaced out. And now passing the time of her interview and coming to the day of her baptism. Hahaah this day was by far one of the most interesting days here in mexico. So we had to wake up early to walk to the church to clean and start the boilers. But as we were walking to the church we always pass this section of where there is no room to walk on the sidewalk so we always walk in the very side of the road. And this time right before we got back to the spot where we could walk on the side walk again a combi flew by and the mirror nicked my shoulder. (and the mirrors of the combis are only about 4 to 5 inches away from the combi itself). and right after it had passed i looked to see what in the world had just happened as I had never been hit by a moving vehicle before. (cuz that was a little bit interesting to be almost hit by a combi if ya know what i'm sayin:D:D) I decided to look and see if he had hit me on purpose or if it was an accident.  After checking out the situation and seeing he had enough room to have not hit me... :D the good old fart (well he probably was a young whippersnapper):D He had about 10 feet that he could have gone even 1 foot more in the other direction and he could have passed us just fine (well... me:D:D) but ya know..... i guess that satan just was trying to make sure that Laticia wasn't going to be baptized.  Being hit by a combi wasnt going to stop us.  After that little joy of an experience, we arrived at the church and after much difficulty got the boilers running and cleaned the baptismal font and then we started our journey to the house of Laticia. When we arrived we started to knock and knock and...... waited... we couldn't understand why she wouldn't be here when she wanted nothing more than to make this agreement with her father in Heaven yesterday.... and so... right as we were about to leave she came walking around the corner.:D:D hahaha so we asked her how she was and she told us that she was doing ok..... so we asked her why she isn't doing really well.... and she told us that she just got done visiting with those Jehovah Witnesses and she always feels down after talking with them.... and when we heard that we were like... pues... fetch... she is probably going to tell us that she does not want to do her baptism still... but then we asked her.... so... are you still ready for your baptism that is like... right now? (it wasn't exactly like that:D:D) and she told us heck yea. Hahaha so we let her grab her stuff and we headed to the church and baptized that lovely old lady:D:D:D

The next thing that i want to write about is the day that i was talking with another elder of the fact that i have never given a blessing before. And we were just chatting up a storm when we were waiting for our comps to come out of a meeting. and he was just telling me that it is not as bad and with practice it will come and that i should not worry:D:D hahaha and really when he said that with practice it would come i don't know if he knew that this practice would come today right after that moment of talking with him:D:D:D So me and my comp just headed to the food and after we were almost done talking the mom of the family asked if we could give her a blessing. So clearly we did. And right after that the daughter came up to us and asked if she could have a blessing as well. (given she is not a member) and so in this moment my comp turned to me and said your turn.. a la fetch.... i couldn't tell him that i had never done one before in my mission so i just took a deep breath and used the power of the spirit and gave a blessing with all my heart. and after that the brother came and asked if he could have a blessing so my comp gave him one. AND again after that the hermana that is not a member asked if i would give a blessing to her dogs... (um.. is that even allowed???) So we told them that we cant bless the dogs with the laying on a hands so we just blessed the dogs with a prayer. and when i was in the middle of this prayer the lady pipes up and tells me the dogs names were more than just "the dogs of this hermana". So after that blessing of the dogs the sister who is not a member runs over to her neighbor and says that there are two elders giving free blessings (because apparently others charge for blessings?) but then we continued to give like 6 more blessings and after that i felt like i had gotten in my practice that the elder had told me earlier that day. and when we had left the house i explained to my comp that i did not know how to do a blessing before that... he looked at me and said.. well... ya learned quickly then:D:D hahaha yeah that was a fun experience..:D:D

But that is what happened this week... not to many things but... the important thing is that Laticia got to have her baptism and that was the highlight of my week:D:D That and changing companions:D:D:D So... adiós hasta la siguiente semana :D:D

Monday, December 9, 2013

Continually Going

Fech man.. this week has been a blast from the past right? Hahah probably not but.. ya know its been swelly enough. :D 

To start I just wanted to write about an experience that I thought was pretty funny:D:D So we have this appointment with this hermana that we had put a cita with her just the day before (and don't you find it funny when you talk with the people the night before and then when you go to their house the next day they some how always had something "come up" like "i needed to visit my family" kind of crap or "sorry i forgot":D:D:D) and so while we are arriving at her house we hear some freaking sick music that was just blastin right? and so we knocked and knocked and knocked  and I saw someone through that crack of the door look at me and then run back into the house hahaha so that is just normal right? so what we decided to do next is just pure genius:D:D:D I turned to my companion and told him that we need to call the hermana right now because i just saw her look at me and then turn back into the house:D:D:D So clearly we whipped out our phone and gave that lady a phone call:D:D:D And as the phone was ringing we heard someone turn down the sick beats that were blastin in their house and someone answered the phone (it just so happened to be our investigator that I saw in the door crack:D:D:D) And so we just quickly asked the hermana that we were passing by her house and that if it was all ok if we passed by to share our next lesson. :D:D And her response was priceless. "oh hermanos i'm sorry I actually not home right now but can you pass by tuesday?" hahah clearly hermana yes we can pass by tuesday:D:D And after we hung up we heard someone turn back up the music to its original state and that is when we decided that apparently that we just need to pack up and head out:D:D:D but i just  thought that this experience was quite funny that some people just have the worst excuses in the history of "my dog ate my homework:D:D:D" 

The next pretty sick experience that I was able to be apart of was awesome:D:D:D So we went to the house of one of our other investigadores and in this lesson we were presenting her the Book of Mormon. And so the order that we were going to go in was my comp was going to start out and finish up the last part of our lección anterior and then i was going to pick up from there and explain about why we have the Book of Mormon and the blessings that come from the reading meditating and asking our father in heaven if it is true right? Well needless to say that the beginning went freakin smooth and right before it came to my part I was kind of flipping bricks because i needed to talk not only in one tense but needed to switch tenses and how i spoke (which needless to say is kinda hard... well.. for this white kid. ) but then i was just like what the heck. Im just gunna speak and who cares right? (well not the kind of who cares like i didn't want to try because i want nothing more than for the messages to come across smooth and sound good and all that jazz right?) And so as I started i just talked and explained what i knew right? And it was freakin sick all the words and insanely hard things that I alway just have problems with outside of the lecciones just started to flow. I don't know what it was honestly. and i was just about to enter the next section of what i was going to talk about with the book of mormon and I just had a feeling that I should share my testimony so clearly i did. And fech son of a mother I have not felt that spirit that strong since we invited one of our other investigadores to baptize herself.  And after that I just felt like it honestly didn't matter what i said or how i said it because they all ready have been feeling what we are trying to explain and that is how it should be the Spirit doing all the hard lifting and you just guiding it. 

And to end I just want to include one experience that was.... well.... needless to say... freakin scary. So we continually visit one of the members here. And one of the nights that we were their we were just sitting there talking and i just so happened to understand the words "evil spirit" "children" and "in our house" so i just put all those together and asked you have evil spirit children in your house. and um... well. they told me that it happens quite often when they will just hear laughing of little kids in their house and things will be moved around and how they have seen some of the kids hiding underneath some of the beds and all that joyful stuff right? Well... we all know how i am just probably one of the most manly men out their when it comes to scary movies and things like that right? (the most sarcastic sentence ever) I am probably one of the biggest wimps ever when it comes to scary movies. So when i heard this that kind of flipped my bricks of wanting to be in that house:D:D And so the next night the family was just headed out to do something and my comp needed to use the bathroom really bad so the family just told us that they are going to head out but we can still enter and use the bathroom so clearly with my comp about to explode we ran in and i sat my self on one of the chairs as he ran to the bathroom. And the whole time while he was in the bathroom I was learning of how all the experiences with scary after life children were probably true. With the complete silence and the just perfect amount of darkness with all the other factors of the house adding to that. And since many of your know how I am with scary movies with the lights on you can only imagine how I was feeling in this moment where I was not watching a scary paranormal movie I was freakin sitting in one. :D And yeah that was a fun experience as well:D:D:D 

And thats alls I gots:D:D:D Have a great week ladies and gents:D:D:D

PHOTO OF THE WEEK...Monday, December 9, 2013

P L A C E D 

Yeah... so... that is alls. just a foto because it just happened to be there:D:D Hands n all. hahah not:D:D

Monday, December 2, 2013

Livin well or barely livin :D:D:D

So... this week was.... good. :D Full of spiritual experiences and all that jazz. 

We are teaching this lady that I had contacted in the street. Remember her? yeah well she is havin a rough time right now because some Jahova witnesses alway go and visit her after we have just finished teaching her. And the lady right now is really confused because she loves the church and the members are really kind to her when she came to church with us. But when the Testigos come by to teach she tells us that all they do is bag about how if she continues to follow this path that she is condeming herself to hell. (Shesh... thats a little harsh right?) and right now our investigator does not know what to do. Because she feels great and like she can do better than and strive for the celestial kingdom when we talk with her but when the other lady comes and visits she just destroys her and tries to make us sound like we are from hell. But after she was done telling me and my comp all this I just had a feeling that I should tell her that she honestly has the power to decide for herself. And so I just decided to tell her exactly that (with the joke of the spanish that I know you can only imagine out it came out;D;D). I explained to her that no one can make her believe in any religion. It is one of the wonderful gifts that through that plan of Jesucristo that we honestly have the power of albedrío. And as well as she does not have to just hope that she can find out what is right for her. Just like we taught her in the first lección with us that along with her albedrío that she can communicate with her Padre Celestial directamente. And whatever she feels is right for her we are going to respect that. so.... as of this moment she is still strong with her baptismal date of the 14th. And I always find it funny when we are passing a bus of testigos de Jeova and that they are always to angry at us. Because we are only 2 boys that only have 18 to 21 years and we are able to convert more people than the whole bus of them put together. So.. I don't know if that already speaks of something that this church is true or are they wearing blind folds? :D:D  so.... yeah life is flowin swell. .:D:D:D

As well as another experience we were just teaching a family how to speak english and just having a good time in general right? And when we were wrapping up I just had a feeling that I should take a moment and share a scripture with the mom. I almost doubted the feeling but every time that i have doubted that feeling it has alway come back to bite me in the butt. So I just thought to myself that I was going to go for it right? And so I just picked a scripture that I had read that morning and shared it with her and explained why I really enjoyed it. Its not like this moment was anything hugely spiritual.  It is just another example of how it does not matter if it is you or the spirit prompting you to do something if it is right it does not matter what is the source you or God. :D

Oh.. and we are teaching this family that the father is having a hard time walking because he has 2 wounds on his legs that refuse to heal. The doctors want to cut off his legs but he refuses. While we have been teaching him and it has really made me realize all that I have good in my life with all that is in his life right now and he is still able to stay... well somewhat positive:D:D  While we teach the family I am always humbled and grateful for the time that we are giving to share the gospel with them. :D (Its difficult to try and progress them because he literally cannot sit up otherwise he starts to bleed out of his wounds again. So i don't know how we are going to pass that small difficulty :D:D)

Hahah and I do want to write about one small funny thing that I have gotten to experience a couple of times over the last 2 weeks:D:D So our bishop knows how to speak a little English and he has started to call me to practice more and more of his English:D:D And every time that this happens I am dead asleep and it is usually around 11.30pm when the bishop calls and he just wants to well... chat:D:D And i am not going to complain :D:D Because i am always looking for ways that i can speak that much more english:D:D But usually he just wants to share the latest scripture that he has found or some of the homework that he has for college or a spiritual experience::D:D So.. Needless to say that i never know when the bishop is going to call:D:D haha well... that was this week:D:D

I know some of you have mentioned I should only write about spiritual things but I do want you to know there were very spiritual sides to the adventures I shared. I shared them so you would know that I was being watched over and being kept safe by a higher power than my own.  When you serve a mission in Mexico City you must be in tune with the spirit at all times or you may never return home:D:D

Doctrine and Covenants 89. Learn it, love it, live it.   :D:D:D So..

peace

Elder Anderson