PHOTO OF THE WEEK...Friday, September 6, 2013

I know this photo rinky stinky... But I have been soooooo busy this week and have had no time to take pictures:D:D  

And again sorry that I am in this photo.... I was going to have someone else be in it but they couldn't hold the name tag right.... :D:D:D:D

Have a great week errrr one:D:D:D:D

THE BOOK IS BLUE AND THE CHURCH IS TRUE:D:D:D

Friday, September 6, 2013

The Beginning of the End and the Start of a New.

The last week has been full of so many fun things and many many experiences that I have really enjoyed learning from:D Today probably couldn't have been a better day so far. I mean we get the opportunity to go out and head to the temple at 6:50 and then eat the temple food (Which in itself is another blessing:D:D) We just had a group of missionaries leave... Gunna miss those brohams (oh dear... Excuse my language "Elders" :D:D) They were the ones that made me always want to push my self to be better in the beginning of the MTC. But after a while my drive to become better in teaching the gospel is the gift I am able to witness when you can see the change in someones eyes that they can feel that the gospel is true and us young humans aren't just spittin' crap. :D Because nothing is worse than when you get into a lesson and an investigator asks you a question that you do not know the answer because you didn't study that other part in preach my gospel.... So... Moral of the story is... Be prepared. :D 

I also just wanted to make a shout-out to Mama Butters:D I have not got the chance to see Jake (Elder Butters) because he was moved to west campus. I would love to hear from him but have not got the chance. 

In a week we leave for Mexico City... Sheesh. :D Like I always think and feel that once you get comfortable in a place and in what you are doing it is time to push yourself further and move into another area that is harder and has more opportunities for you to become what you ultimately want to be in the end. We were told that we won't understand any words that were said for atleast 2-3 weeks! Yay for being totally isolated:D:D But really. It reminded me of the time when Elder Butters and myself asked my mom to drop us off somewhere in utah and we would walk back. In the end it wasn't hard to find a land mark that guided you where you had to go (The slightly visible mountains). :D But down in mexico I won't know what people are saying there won't be any visible land marks and many other things. And I couldn't be anymore exicted to go down there and feel like "This is not the language they taught me in the MTC" - Best 2 years quote. :D Hahaha  so.... Life is SO good. I can't even express how good life is. I mean sitting in a classroom errrr day for 8 hours in a bit rough. But I doesn't even feel like we have been here a month because we learn so much every day and by the time you feel like you have learned the concept that they were teaching it has been 2 weeks and you have learned 20 other concepts:D :D

Oh!!! and recently I emailed about how my teacher was being a..... in the nicest words... Not the best individual he could be. :D And for a couple of days after he asked me why I was even here on a mission" I prayed every morning and everynight that he would die or catch some sickness and die or be hit by a car and die. (so pretty much the end out come of my prayers were that I wanted him to die....) Which probably was the wrong thing to be praying for. And I realized that about after 3 days of praying like this. And then after I thought a little bit more about why he was being so rude to us I found that I really didn't know why he was so unhappy. So then I decided that I would start to pray for him and pray that I may understand why he was so angry at some teenagers trying to learn a language in a month. After 3 days of praying like this he came into class one day and told us that he has a weakness that he does not show how much that he really does love us and how much he really does want us to suceed. He just continued on and apologized to us about things that he had done and that he is going to try and vocalize more compliments and help us a little more in learning the language as opposed to just scolding us about the things that we don't know. And after he had said this he has been SO kind!!! To bad I only decided to pray for an understanding now. Because If I had prayed for an understanding earlier maybe he would has said this sooner... Or maybe not... No one will ever know... 

But the MTC is amazing!!!! And everyone should come on a mission. Even if you are past 18 or 19 or 20 you should still come because it is honestly the most hard work I have ever done but I have never had so much fun learning and teaching of this truth. :D

Until next time...

Elder Anderson

PHOTO OF THE WEEK...Friday, August 30, 2013

I am going to start this thing called "Photo of the week" Because... WHY NOT? And they will probably be in back and white or sepia because I can't edit them so why shoot in color:D

Friday, August 30, 2013

Forever Stuck.

Haha The last week here in the MTC has been quite the experience. :D I mean it was full of some completely awesome times as well as sometimes that I wish did not have to happen. First off we (Elder Lee and myself) were able to have the opportunity to head up to salt lake and get our visas from the constable. That was a pretty fun time. And I was just called to be the district leader for our remainder here at the MTC (The one thing that I didn't want to be). I didn't want to be the district leader because everyone in our district thinks that it is a roll of power and that I am "above them". LAME if your askin' me. But ya know it is what it is. Spanish is coming along great! I mean as great as 3 weeks of spanish is. But we are teaching as well as we can and I don't ever feel like I have learned anything until I look back and see that it was just small and simple progress. Personally the best time of the week is P-day (because we wake up and go to the temple in the morning) andsunday because.... Not sure probably just the 2 most enjoyable days here at the MTC. Oh and tuesday and wednesday are pretty good as well. :D Because Tuesday we have a devotional and twice already members of the twelve have come and speak to us. And then Thursday is not to bad because it is P-day Eve. What other place than the MTC do you get the opportunity to have a holiday and a P-day Eve. I mean Its practically candy. 

Oh! HAHA something funny is I just read in Elder Hewetts E-mail that he is getting a companion that is waiting for his visa, and an Elder in our district just got re-assigned to Long Beach california while he is waiting for his visa:D and he was in my room while he read me his re-assignment. So... Elder Hewett have a fun time spreadin' the word with Elder Leoneti he is a fantastic person:D

I also had the opportunity to host Elder Butters on wednesday. That was pretty sick. It was awesome to get to talk to him and feel his excitement!:D The only downer thing is that he is living on West campus. So... Elder Christiensen and myself will not get as many opportunities to visit with him as we would want to. But ya know life keeps goin' forward you just choose how to live it. 

This week our district only had one bad moment. I don't say this to complain. I just say it how it was and just to let ya know what happened this week. It was when our teacher Hermano Voyack (Hombre de santanas) came back from California. I really enjoyed him before this incident, because he was not mean but wasn't rude and he really pushed us. :D But on Tuesday he came in after we were teaching Toby (Hermano Voyack) and said to our whole district "Do you guys even know how to teach with the spirit?" Yeah... Ouch... That was a stinger. And then he continued on to say that we can't just teach the Gospel we have to see the needs of the investigator and then teach then what they need to hear. (Which is what I thought we were doing right?) But afterwards I went up and talked to him and said that all of us are just trying our best to learn how to first try and get our message across as well as improving on our "conversationing talk" and the response I got was... "You should talk with your hands and use items in the room to explain the message and apply it to your investigator. Just start trying or maybe you shouldn't have even come here in the first place" Double ouch... So I just walked away from him and.... Yeah just continued on with my day. :D Because why worry about his problems when I just needed to keep movin forward:D But that was the most eventful thing that has happened this week. :D So... :D Life just keeps on rollin':D

OH!!! So in our district we watched some Mormon messgaes that maybe we could tell our investigators to go watch that would apply to our lessons and while we were watching them I wrote anther hunka junk of a thing that is kinda like  the end of my farewell talk. I decided to name it.

"Children"

They awake... 

Feeling the void of something that once was.

Unknowing, un-remembering... Utterly lost. 

Not knowing the past, nor the future. The present is their gift.

Learning to adjust to the new while forgetting the old. 

The plan I will provide shall be the path. 

They learn. Grow. Discover.

Finding right from wrong, light from dark, left from right.

Pain, Sorrow, Guilt... Joy, Relief, Gladness.

The Choice. Its up to them. The path is set.

They walk. 

All while I wait. I'm Far but close.

Always Here. Always Listening.

All I do is for them.

Trials and hardships I will give.

All in hope that they may grow. They see so little of how it came to be.

The gifts that I give and time that's spent draws us closer.

As the sun sets and again they come close to feeling the void that once was.

Only now... Knowing, believing, and forever following...

Although some may have never really understood WHY I let them go.

All the pain and sorrow.

One day they will know. 

That I let them go.

So that one day they may...

Become. 

So... yeah... Berkeley feel I hear that you have stared a blog about these random hunka junks that I sent home so... Feel free not to post the embarrassment above if you feel the need.I know that it is not really that good but.. Ya know.. You do what you can to entertain yourself and still stay close to the savior.  

I would just like to say thanks again for all the letters that everyone sends. I don't have much time between teaching and learning learning a new language... But I will eventually respond to all your letters (Berkeley:D:D)

Oh... And for the record.... Berkeley I don't miss you yet (;D).

Audios y bueno suerte hasta proximo semana. (Ummm not sure if that was what I meant to say but... It was worth a shot.) #mygrammern'spellingisnogood. 

more from @graydenpapers

Friday, August 23

Week 3 or... 2? Who knows.....

The last week has been absolutely insane!!! I mean I thought that eventually things might begin to start getting easier. But... They did:D:D Haha you thought that I was going to say that there is no hope here in the MTC. But I would like to say that there is hope here in the MTC. Even though it is not easily found. :D I mean I have found it in the last week through reading my scriptures on Monday and on Thursday was rough because the investigator we taught in the morning I didn't understand at all.. And then I found out that the whole morning that I had forgot to pray... I KNOW RIGHT?!?! I mean I even ate food unblessed! SHEESH... What is this world coming to? But we were singing a song before we started our second session of 4 hours in a class room. And I would love to tell you the song we sang but... I cant remember the title.. Because it was in Spanish. But somewhere in that song I just started to feel better and feelin' more up to teachin our other investigator that night (Mario). In that lesson we taught Mario that he can talk to his Padre Celestial whenever he wants even when he earthly father can't be there for him. And it was amazing because you can't just teach someone what is right. You have to ask the right questions in there so the investigator feels involved and will discover the answers that you want them to feel by themselves. Because if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, if you teach a man how to fish you feed him for a life time. So by letting Mario discover what he needed to know through the guidance of the spirit he was able to feel like he was the one who is finding answers thus creating a close bond between him and Heavenly Father. Elder Lee and myself really needed that good lesson because studying Spanish and being limited to what you can teach because you don't know the vocabulary to tell what you really want to tell is lame and hard. But ya know... What eva. Spanish has been going really well over the last week. Last Saturday we were told that we were not focused enough and needed to push ourselves further and faster and go into the lessons with more faith than knowledge. (Believe me we had no knowledge so it was complete faith with teaching our beginning lessons). But after that little lecture I decided I needed to pick up the pace. And over the last week I was able to memorize 120 verbs 17 different phrases as well as memorize our purpose solidly and almost have the first vision down word for word, and can teach the first lesson with an investigator pretty solid.. I am able to understand completely what someone is saying if they talk mediocre slow and only talk about what they like or questions about the gospel. Yes that means if you asked me how to get to the bath room I would just sit there and stair at you blankly because I only know how to ask where the bathroom is and teach you how to follow Christ. So... There is still so much to learn... I will start being a lazy missionary once I feel like I know everything about Spanish and the gospel (which we all know 2 years isn't enough to learn everything about the gospel so no worries about me being lazy:D:D:D) We had another missionary head home this week. I feel like with the age drop down to 18 boys feel like they need to leave right after high school and head on a mission. And I would personally have every boy coming out a high school to think about going right after. :D:D But don't just come on a mission because everyone else is going.. If you are not ready wait until you are. Because I have seen some missionaries that were not ready to leave their family and just break down. The MTC is a great place. Its like a purgatory. If you can survive it you are strengthened and continue to move on. But if you aren't... It eats you up and spits you out:D:D:D:D HAHAHA yupp:D:D I have come to learn that with out the power of God and the pure truth that the Holy Ghost can testify to people sharing the gospel would just not be possible. Our district was told this last week after some boys in our district did some not to mature things. That we are not reporting to our teacher everyday if we are good or not. We are reporting to God every night about if we have served and put in our all today or not. :D I thought that was a cool way to put it. Because its the truth. You can get away with quite a bit here at the MTC, but its not the mission president or the MTC president that you are reporting to. Its your Father in Heaven that you committed yourself to for the next 2 years. :D Oh and speakin about headed out for 2 years... Elder Lee and myself are headed up to SLC on Monday to get our VISAS! :D So.. I guess we were meant to go down into Mexico and convert the drug lords... Or... not. But things are hard but well. Have a great week:D:D:D:D

Elder, Anderson

Pictures from the MTC

Gray still doing his jumpergram pictures even while on his mission!

At the Provo Temple.

Walks to the temple. 

 Chillin at the Provo temple.

 E L D E R S

 Gray's companion, ELDER LEE

 ELDER ANDERSON

 ELDER 

 Gray still manages to get awesome pictures of the sunset, even while in the MTC.

 Elder Anderson and Elder Lee

 Look what my mom put in my suitcase! Thats what I get for not packing myself!

 She is the closest thing to a "Girl" allowed in our rooms! 

 One of our roommates went home so now she has a bed of her own!

When you open your suitcase and she is looking up at you! 

We will sign her head and hide her up in the tiles on the ceiling!

When you come to the MTC if you find her, sign your name and hide her again!

 Head and Shoulders Above the Rest!

 Your Mother is watching!