Monday, March 31, 2014

THE HOLE

well... this week was.... interesting.... hahah so ya know when you are training and its like raising a child. (hahah like... really...) I love my "son" so much i'm not going to lie... but... ya know... we have our difficulties... like i would just like to say an example that i am trying to teach my comp what he should not do while we are teaching... so we are in a lesson with some less actives and things are flowin so suave and the power of the spirit was there and my comp goes and tells these less actives "well... all of the blessings that my comp promised are true and that you all should really come to church, (this is where it gets a little... interesting...) I know that the church can help you guys so much but remember that the devil is working against you and it will be so hard to come back after years of bad habits and that you guys probably wont be successful to come back to the church because the devil is so strong but... good luck. " oh man... i was so shocked after he said that i tried so hard to come back after that and well... luckily after some time and a few motivating scriptures they were back smiling and all pumped up for going to church (they came to church this week:D:D:D). and then after we left i just told him... dude.... ya gotta focus more on the positive we are trying to encourage them to come to church not condemn them. so yeah... we are getting better errr day. :D but i just thought that was a funny story that passed:D:D:D 

hahah so every month we have the money that is to come this next week , our DL had a baptism on saturday and my comp wanted to see how much water was in the cisterna(the underground water storage ) so he opened up this hatch to see how much water was down there. ok.. well.. let me explain first. this water storage has this opening at the top that is like 3 feet by 3 feet and then it drops down for like 15 feet until the water starts and then who know how deep it is from there. so with that said you know the pocket that we have on our shirts as missionaries- things can fall out right? so as my comp went to bend over to see how deep the water was....... his credit card, mission manual, cards that we made to hand out, and his gafete (i have no idea what gafete would be in english...(badge)) ... oh man... it would not be such a big deal about all the other things fell into this huge underwater storage tank, but... HIS CREDIT CARD°?°?° awww crap.... the money comes this coming monday and we really need the cash flow.... and let me tell ya i was not mad with my comp in the slightest. right after it happened he was already taking off his socks and shoes so that he could get him self into the water tank to get his things. oh man... i just told him. BRO YOU CANT GO IN THERE. I CANT BE EMAILING PRESIDENT THIS WEEK AND HAVE TO TELL HIM.... SOOO... MY COMP DIED? YEAH..... NO BIGGY RIGHT? so after a 15 minute discussion i finally got him to put back on his shoes and socks. but still i am dying inside because to get a new card from the mission is like... a month wait and they don't give us sufficient money as it is. so i was wondering what in the world i was going to do . so when today came around we had just woken up and i thought.... man... before the mission i went skydiving, jumping train car to train car, breaking into places to get sick instagram pictures, and now? i have not done anything crazy in like.... 7 months!!! sheesh! what is this life with out a little of adventure. so i turned to my comp and was like... get ready bro we are going to the church. and when we got there my comp finally found out that i was going down this hole of death to get his  credit card. and my son asked me "why cant i go down?" and i just told him..... "well.... my son.... to tell ya the truth... the president is in love with native spanish speakers and frankly... i don't fall well with him... so if i die... it will probably be a relief to him:D:D" hahah and with that i put myself in and worked my way down the 3 by 3 foot walls down to the water and when i got down there i dropped myself into the water (which came up to my neck, good thing my short comp didnt go down.) and i could not see a thing for the life of me. haha so i just yelled up to my comp drop me the cell phone bro!!! and as he tossed me down the phone i used the flashlight to see this small cavern that i have just entered... and i just yelled back to my son. "The things i do for you son!" and if there are spiders down here i'm going to kill you!!! so i found the card and didn't drown and got my self back out after a heck of a lot of time of almost slipping back down. and yeah... my comp now has money! hahah heck yeah... thats the way we do p-days here in mexico. 

but yeah... we worked really hard this week and ..... still tryin to work harder, we are hitting all the numbers but not the baptisms so we are happy but in Mexico they planched us from the top on down  so yeah... have a great week. peace.

Monday, March 24, 2014

E. N. G. L. I. S. H.

phew!!! throw me a towel cuz i'm sweatin.... hahah not really but... really. we are only getting started into the season of heat and roasted chickens and i'm already dyin (bah darn english.... why is it so hard to spell in english.... i still can't speak spanish but to spell spanish is a heck of a lot easier than english let me tell ya...) but this week man... i thought it was going to be a week of just sitting at home drinkin iced tea but... ya know... then i realized that... 1. i'm mormon and we don't drink tea and 2.... that i'm in the mission and sitting at home really isn't an option.... but this week was sick:D like my comp... well not really he is doin just fine. 

but to start i just want to tell about a story that happened this week that really was freakin crazy!!!!! so we have been contacting in the street like donkeys and ya know we have been seeing some of the fruits of our labors. so we were going to teach this family and when we entered they offered us something fast to eat before we began our teaching. so we got to know these people that are so fantastic and so welcoming i was so sure that they were going to progress so well!!! and so when i usually start i ask the family what i can ask for them in the prayer (what every missionary does right? ) and when i asked this man what i could ask for him in this prayer he told me that i could ask for the health of his wife and that she always would have the best that would be for her. and that really just shocked me straight up... because they have been married for like 20 years and usually more marriages here that i have seen the husband is like... make me a sandwich woman and don't have respect. so when he told me to ask for his wife i was like dude... i respect you so much what a man (thinkin this in my mind of course...) but what a man right?!?!?! and that is only the beginning of this adventure. so we started with the prayer and right when i ended the prayer the spirit just came in so strong and i just thought to my self... man if they cant feel this i don't know how much more God can do to show them that this is the truth... but oh boy was i wrong... me and my comp were just about finished with the lesson and usually i find myself praying that the spirit will be able to stay with us the entire time in this lesson i found my self praying that if God could take away a little bit of the power of the spirit that was there because i don't know if it was the reaction with all the spicy that i have been eating but really i was feeling pain of how strong the spirit was there in the room and the faces of the man, his son, and his wife we of complete shock or awe with what we were saying and the power that was in the room and when we finished and i did the baptismal invitation the power and feelings of the spirit were only even more! it was awesome to say the truth. and ya know after i did everything probably the most smooth that i have every done an invitation baptismal ya know what he said..... a solid... no. oh man... that took me back.. and threw me for a loop because i have never felt the spirit work so hard with someone before in my mission. but he was solidly set on his no and normally we try to convince the people to say yes but this time i just felt like i should respect his no and when we were leaving he was like... but i really do respect what you guys are doing. i would like to invite you guys back to eat barbacoa. hahah heck yeah we are headed back with this brohomeie!!! :D so yeah... that was my experience with the most powerful lesson with the spirit that i have felt in my life. and about half way through the lesson the son who has like 10 years of age left the room and can back out when we were leaving and gave me a photo that he drew that had me and my comp with the words; my best friends; oh man... can this family get any smoother? or could this day be any better? but we still had one more lesson to go to.

so while we were going to our last lesson after this family i got a call from the lady that who we were going to go visit that she is going to have a family home evening with some new investigators and if it's all good if i teach the lesson and the activity... and i was like.... um.... sure? so in the 5 minutes that we had walking to her house i came up with a lesson in what i was going to teach. and you know what that lesson was? yeah you guessed it... it was the paper cross story:D:D hahah how funny that i thought that i was never going to use this story in my life and here i am using it for a family home evening. and while i was finally ripping the airplane to make the paper cross the suspense was so much in the room and with each piece that i unfolded was a little bit more pressure to see if the missionaries would be able to stay if they could find this paper cross with one straight rip. and finally when i unfolded the paper cross every ones mouths just dropped open hahah i'm sorry but i kinda laughed a little because the shock in the faces of the people was priceless!!! :D and then i finished up and we set an appointment with these 3 investigators for tomorrow and things should flow well with themD:D:D: but yeah that  is what i wanted to share with you guys bout the paper cross story:D:D:D 

and... well... i received my first job offer here in mexico. who would have guessed. but we got his call from an investigator and she told me that in her work they don't have people to teach english and so we went when we had a free hour (which was weird because we never have a free hour) and i went and taught english hahah how funny and when we finished the boss of this english company came up to me and was like... so when can you come back. .. we will pay you. hahah i just told him that i would love to come back but i wont accept money. and as long as i can invite the people to listen to our message that we bring, i will teach english:D haha he said yes and so i am now teaching classes of english in the church and in a business. as they say..... finding investigators in unexpected places. :D

and.... we ate pig intestines.... whoa! there is another blessing to not eat that again:D that did not sit well in my stomach... to say the least... but yeah... oh and nancy the mom of johnathan, the first person that i got the opportunity to baptize? yeah... she finally decided to get baptized!!! yay!!!! my dl couldnt get after me too much this week cuz i out taught him. I taught 50 discussions gave 5 church tours, had 60 street contacts, added 7 new investigators, and had three previous ones and had 4 less actives at church:D:D i am exhausted but glad to be working harder than ever:D:D

Monday, March 17, 2014

Trabajo.
(Work.)

Well... this last week was an interesting one:D:D we worked and worked and worked until  it felt like I was living a scene in the Best Two Years. it is good to be a trainer so you can set the pace:D:D So probably the coolest thing that happened would have to be the two baptisms that we had the opportunity to participate in :D The first baptism is of a young man that is 20 years old and he probably is the bees knees. we found him because he was going to seminary and he was already reading a crap load in the book of mormon and he practically already knew everything that we were teaching him so all we really had to do is wait for the 4 church sundays that people have to go to before they can get baptized:D hahah but something funny or.... ironic... i don't know but its... something:D:D so we were at his house the day before his baptism and he is telling us that he has a cold. a really bad cold so he does not think that he will be able to baptize himself tomorrow. and i was like... uh... crap... this is not good... so we just started to chat and finally he was like alrighty i will baptize myself tomorrow. and when we arrived for the baptism i found another missionary putting blue dye in the water (ya know.. ya do what ya gotta do so the water can look appealing for the people who are baptizing themselves. right? because who wants to get baptized in water green) and that is when i was SO surprised. because i put my hand in the water.... and um.... yeah.... it was freakin cold!!! oh man... i felt so bad for Miguel when i felt the water... cuz he is sick and this could only make it worse... but... then i just thought that maybe he might be a bit more sick but the ordinance that he is going to make with God is something that is going to last with him forever:D:D so that was pretty awesome. and yeah... the baptism went great. I had my son baptize him so that he could have his first baptism. :D:D 

hahah and the other baptism that we had the opportunity was with an absolutely fantastic lady :D:D her name is maria and this was probably one of the most fantastic moments i have ever had here in mexico :D because after so much time working with her and her doubting and telling us no to what we are saying she finally received the answer that we have been telling her that she would receive if she just continued on. :D:D oh man... i don't even know how to express how happy i was for this lady:D:D:D:D:D!!!!!!!! like when she left her interview with our DL she just came up to me and was just bawling (with joy) and was like can you just please give me a hug? BAH THAT FREAKIN KILLED ME!!!! Cuz I was as happy as she was.  I just told her that i really cant. . . . but yeah... it was a fantastic moment:D:D and at her baptism she called me her angel for everything that i had done for her (well... i really didn't do much... really... it was all the Lord.) and the patience that we had with her and yeah.. it was such a fantastic moment i really cant tell you how awesome it was. Because i have never really felt so happy for someone to make this covenant. yeah.. it was a sick experience :D

haha and i just have one more thing that was freaking funny that happened. so... during the nights my comp sleeps really light and he wakes up really easily. and last night (i do not remember what happened at all.) apparently i woke up in bed and sat up and started talking with my comp. and apparently as he told me we just had like a 10 minute conversation about the mission to what is life like in Guatemala. and at the end i just told him... ok thats cool... night:D hahah sorry that just freaking killed me to hear that i just woke up in the night and started talking to my comp. but yeah... so...... cool story bro. right? 

well that is the hi light of what happened this week... we worked fechin hard this week. had 17 new investigators, a couple baptisms and a crap load of lessons, 47 to be exact, sixty contacts, 7 less actives at church........almost as good as  "The Best Two Years".......and i still got told to do better or go home?  what? is that the south american way? i hope to get up the guts to tell my DL that the Lord is pleased so why doesnt he go home:D :D so i hope things will get better for my DL's sake but as for Me and the Lord.... I think we are doing just fine :D I love feeling the spirit and the satisfying feelings it brings here in good ole mexico. remember to always check with the lord to find out where you stand with him or life could destroy you:D:D

Monday, March 10, 2014

THE CHILD CAME!!!!!

phew.... just give me two jumps and a kitkat because i need a break.... this week was probably one of the most... well... growing experiences that i have lived here in Mexico. only like... 2 things happened this week. so... here they are.

so the first experience that happened was when we were taking this lady to a guided visit of the church. (something that we do here... i have never heard of them in the US.. but.. maybe that's just me...) but so we brought this lady in and all we do in these guided visits is explain the day of rest and why we partake of the sacraments. but overall we start with a hymn. and we ask the people just to sit and relax while us (the elders) sing for them. and so me and my new child (it' s what they say when you training.... so... i have a kid.... yeah... weird...) started to sing for this lady and after we finished the first verse this random guy just walked in the doors of the church and heard us singing and after like... 10 seconds he quickly rushed up to the piano and started to play the song that we were singing.. hahah that was so sick!!! the spirit is always pretty freakin strong while we are singing for the people when we are in the church but... when this man just decided to walk up and started to play that is like when the freakin tower of babel just came down and the spirit just hit the lady in the face... well. that was a little graphic... but yeah.. and did i mention that this lady has not gone to church in like 30 years and after we had finished everything this lady was so shocked at how many blessings that she is missing out on by not going to church. (and just to finish this she did end up going to church this last week:D:D:D)  so.... YES for going to church for the first time in 30 years!!!!!! :D:D:DD:D:D

hahah yeah... and the other story that i have to tell is that now that i am training it seems like every moment my dl's are just looking for ways to rip into me. it is hard for me to hear I am not doing enough. i was raised that we should focus on what we HAVE done, not what we HAVENT done.  we taught 41 lessons this week and had five investigators in church and 8 less actives in church.  I felt like the Lord had really blessed my new comp and i to have touched so many with the spirit that they would want to attend church and to continue feeling those same feelings we left them with.  according to my dl our 41 lessons werent good enough, even though it was five more than anyone else.  this week i have come to realize that my numbers are "good enough for the Lord" but that is hard to get that across to someone who is from a country other than my own who keeps telling me i havent done enough as i am walking out of church.  it is so important to look to the Lord to find out if He is pleased with your work or you could get discouraged when other kids your age tell you your arent doing enough.  i think this young missionary needs to change his approach or he may end up having some unsuccessful children someday.  he needs to point out the positive and not focus on the negative. i am sure we would be more successful as a mission if we did this.... this is something every missionary needs to learn. the minute i start to think I am not doing "good enough" I know exactly where that though came from and it can go back to where it came from.  

now they have set the standard for me and my comp that we have to find 3 new people everyday. so we have been contacting like.... (insert something loco.) and well... to be honest we have not had much luck with the numbers... but we were lead to this lady.  when we were going to go visit a family we swung by their house and this lady walked out and started to talk with us and told us that the lady and the family that we were looking for are not home. (oh.... darn.... ) so we just started talking with this lady and after a bit of time we got to go in. we just started talking with her and i asked her a few questions and all of the sudden she just opened up and told us what is going on in her family and how she does not know what she needs to do and practically everything that she could have told us... she did. so we started with our first lesson and we had learned that she is catholic. so we were just teaching to her needs and at the very end of the lesson we asked her if she will prepare herself so that she can be baptized. that is when she asked us if her baptism was valid. and so i asked her in what way was she baptized? and she told us that it was two elders like us. and she even had a picture of her two elders who baptized her. (bah in this moment i was not a very happy camper because she is like a golden investigator and was accepting everything perfect and at the very end to find out that she had already been baptized....) and so i followed up and asked her how long ago were you baptized? and telling me that it was like 5 years ago. and then i asked her have you ever heard of Joseph Smith? (and followed by other questions) i found out that this lady was baptized ... so... now i have this amazing lady who i need to teach everything but don't get to do the ordinance.... she is a very nice lady and is really willing to learn and i'm excited to teach her what she needs to know so that she can really do what she needs to do to receive the blessings of the baptism that she did:D:D:D

but... yeah... that is my week:D:D:D I'm training... we didn't baptize this week... but we did have many people feel the spirit and know that the Savior loves them and thats why i am here...... and it's true what i heard about training. Your new comp is like a baby. (in the way of like... You have to show and teach and guide him in everything.) i was just thinking that since my comp already knows Spanish it would be easier for him to catch on.. or that he would already know stuff... but.. haha no:D:D but it's fun and an adventure:D my comps name is Elder Ovalle from Guatemala. pretty cool dude I'm not gonna lie:D:D:D kinda reminds me of my little brother Hudson:D:D:D

Monday, March 3, 2014

well.... ya know when you just wish for a week that was just a solid week without to many experiences where you just want to hide in your bed and not leave until the next full moon? yeah well... this week was not one of those weeks. this last week was just pure solid i'm not going to lie. So... i'm just going to get started :D

firstly... me and my comp were just walking in the street (isn't that how all my stories start?) and this lady came up to us and said "hey weren't you guys suppose to pass by my house like... 3 days ago?" and well... to be honest i did not recognize this lady for the life of my 3rd cousin... and so my comp said... "um... i don't think so... you have already talked to elders like us?" and she was like "yeah they gave me a brochure and i told them that they should pass by my house so that we could talk more about the word of God." and in this moment i was pretty confused because i don't remember that we had passed by a house to see this lady. and so i asked what her name was. and when she told me we remembered exactly who this lady was. yes we had talked with her and yes we had passed by her house and when we knocked on her house that is when the crazy loco man left his house with the gun (ya, remember that story?). and so i asked her... "you don't by chance have a son that lives with you.... do you?" and she was like... "YES and i heard that you guys had a not so good encounter with him..." and my comp said... "well... He gave us a little bit of fear to say the least." and that is when the lady said... "yeah... but i would still like for you to pass by and for us to talk about what you guys had told me before." (and i had wanted to ask the lady... are you really going to be there this time or are we just going to our death threat again? haha... yeah... but i didn't cuz i didn't think that it was appropriate...) so we snagged another quote with this lady and we are going to pass some time this week:D:D Fingers crossed that we don't DIE;D;D

and the other story that i want to tell about probably was one of the most powerful and sad moments that i have ever experienced in my mission.... so me and my comp were just pretty much wrecking this day to say the least. teachin and preachin with power and just feelin good, right? and while we were just coming to an end of the day we went with this lady who has... well... to say the least. she has many problems in her life.... like difficulties with health and a whole load more... (a very nice lady to tell you the truth) so we entered her house and we started to teach our lesson that we had prepared about prayer. and that is when she just opened up to us and told us everything in her life. in this moment and while i was listening and trying to feel exactly what this lady needed, i just felt the most sad and sorrow that i have felt in my whole life for someone... and so now with the spirit so thick and me feeling so bad for this lady and yet still so much respect for her for how much faith that she has, even though with all the difficulties that she has. so... this is going to be weird to type... but in this moment I just felt a little bit of the pain that this woman had (clearly i was just imagining it or something because i can't really feel this woman's pain) and i just wanted to cry for her because all of the faith that she has and still all of the suffering.. and when it came to my part where i was going to share a scripture of my choice, a scripture popped into my head that i knew would be so perfect for this lady. but for some reason i knew if i shared this scripture i would just start to cry (because of everything that just had added up during this lesson and the power and strength of the spirit that was there)... so i quickly thought of another scripture that i knew that i would not cry but i still felt like i should share the other one... and when i flipped to the second scripture right before i started to share it my comp gave me a small nudge and when i looked at him, he didn't move his head or anything, and i just felt that he knew exactly what scripture that i was thinking of first. (and now i'm thinking oh great... i'm going to freaking weep in front of this lady....) And so i knew that this scripture was exactly what she needed to hear and so i flipped to it.... and as i started to talk... man... i have never felt the spirit so strong in my whole life.... i just knew that this is what this woman needed to hear in this moment and... well... like i said that i just knew that i would cry if i shared this scripture... yeah well... I just started to cry. (and it killed me... i just thought man.... I'm becoming more like my mom!!!! Crying in times like these...) and well... that was the most awesome experience of this week... because i just felt good and the spirit was there so freakin strong and i really felt like we shared a message that really helped this lady out. and well... yeah.. that's about it:D::D:D haha what an ending, eh?

and hahah well... i would like to end with an experience that practically just killed me:D:D in a funny way:D So... we had a tournament this p day and we played against another zone in futbol. we invited so many members and so many fans from other areas so it would be... ya know... just something huge and way fun, right??? so we started and i was playing mid, so i was running up and down and up and down. and while we were playing (which was a freakin blast!!!!!) Some of the fans started to yell at me (that were from out side) Hahahaha and really... it just killed me. :D the first question was "Elder Anderson how old are you?" and i was like... um.... i'm 19... (thinking... excuse me... i'm trying to play some soccer? hahah not really but ya know just weird questions right?) and they just continued with randomly weird questions like... "where are you from?", "what ward are you in?", "how much time do you have until you end your mission?", "do you have plans to come back?" and i was just thinking to myself... who do you think i am? a free dating website??? (and i am still convinced that this is just a huge joke that just started with those two girls in my ward that came up to me and asked me for my autograph as justin bieber... and now it has spread to the whole zone.) ((because really... who asks questions like that to a missionary? do they even know my purpose???)) hahah yeah... but that is not where this story ends... so after some investigators from another area invited some of us over to their house to eat with them.. and ya know they fed us really good (even though we lost......) and ya know i had finished talking with some of the adults and went to find my comp because he needs to pack his bags so that he can go to changes tomorrow. and when i went out side my comp was sitting with another family and missionaries and when i came up he said to the girl who was sitting across from him " yeah just ask elder anderson for yourself that he was a model before the mission" and i was like..... "NO. heck to the no. i was not a model before the mission. i was just a regular individual before the mission, I did nothing and ya know... ate hamburgers like every other american:D:D:D" and then after that i was like... "hey benitez we need to go so that you can pack and we can get to changes on time"... and so as we were leaving the daughters of the family that had given us food were like..."hey... can we get a picture of you?" and i was like....."um........ yeah?" so this girl comes up to me and grabs my arm to put around her and i was like. BAH! fetch, i can't do that. sorry i really cant, i'm a missionary. phew... saved my self from that one and so... we took the picture and i left as fast as i could and i turned to my zone leader and said... when is this joke going to end???? he laughed at me and we just continued on our way:D:D:D  (i'm still convinced that this is a huge joke.)

and the pictures are of the story that i told about the family that we ate with. the other one is some photos of me and greenwood and my comp. and the other is of me and my comp at the field we played at:D:D:D

well... this is what happened this week and... yeah... i have changes tomorrow and i will be training a newbee... so... we will see how this goes with a spanish kid who knows nothing of how to be a missionary and a white boy who cant speak spanish... hahah yeah... peace:D