Monday, May 26, 2014

The weeks.

This week was an interesting one. . . . :D:D:D 

but this week i was in my area for a max of 2 days. because the zone leaders have been sending me to each place so that I could help pick up the encouragement of some elders and the attitude towards  contacting people in the street. I'm not saying that i'm a good contacter and for nothing am i saying that i have had success. but it has been a good time as i have learned that contacting is just trying to make a friend and applying the gospel to what they need (and you can probably tell me... thank you very much for saying that yet again, but really that is what i keep learning week after week.) 

And something that i have really been learning this last week is the fact that i really have to be careful that the people that i am teaching are learning to have their own testimony and that they are not just getting baptized by my testimony. Because this week i was only in the area 2 days, 1 day at the beginning of the week and 1 day at the end of the week. And when i came back some things really shocked me . That many people had told my comp that he had visited, like less actives and some of our investigators, had told him that they were going to stop going to church and all that jazz if they take me out of this area. So that was a shocker and I have most definitely have learned (not that i have forgotten) that i really am not that good of a teacher and helping people get their own testimony. But i guess that God already knew that and we have been informed of the changes that are going to pass tomorrow. And I am going to have the opportunity to stay here in this area for at least 2 more months :D:D:D That is probably the blessing that i have to fix the problem that i have created here in the area (as in my investigators were sad that i was peacin out). 

But... as for this week....the only thing that is going to change is that i will have a new comp tomorrow.  So we will see what is going to happen.  

Monday, May 19, 2014

The magic in NO

So... this week was a good one. Well... hahah yeah... here we go. I am still trying to figure out why some weeks we are just rocking socks and some other weeks well... not so hot... :D but ya know. that just the way things are. So this week we had success in the whole baptizing way but not in the finding new people....  But ya know.. i don't know if i mentioned that Elder Lee is in my district again. ya it's kinda the best thing that has come into the pantitlan boundaries. So i got to do divisions with elder lee and that was a freakin booster :D 

Oh... and i got a pretty good story...(well... i thought it was good....) So. a young little man in our ward asked me for a book of mormon so that he could give it to his teacher in school. and so already knowing that me and my comp do not have a single book of mormon in the house in this moment we went looking for a book of mormon. we went to the other houses of the other missionaries. and after a long walk we finally found one. but by this time its dark outside and if you are walking in the street at 6 there are some really freakin.... (well. so say it in a nice way they just are not all there because of the substances that they are taking into their body.) and so normally we cross the street and try to avoid them so that nothing passes if we walk by them. but ya know, i had never seen anything happen in all the time that i had passed by them and in this moment i decided that they looked really suspicious. (this could be a story where we should always listen to the spirit.) so i felt like we should cross the road like we always do but then the lazy part of me said. "well... nothing has ever happened before so... why don't we just walk by them now?" and when i thought of that i thought to myself. "yeah we are not going to cross the street because we have already walked like 10 miles today and i'm tired". (great excuse right? ) And so my comp was in front of me and he passed by them just fine but right when i started to pass this man he jumped up and started screaming and he grabbed my so freakin hard. (1. the man scared the freakin crap out of me because i didn't know a drunk man could move so fast. 2. that man probably was not all there but MAN he had a freakin grip. ) As this man scared the whole world out of me i ripped my arm from his grip and picked up the pace. and as he started to follow us he was screaming "HEY. come back!! aliens! take me with you to heaven!!!"  That gave me a small laugh, i have been called many many things here but never aliens. So i guess there is a first for everything :D and i give the man kudos points for being original :D BUT. what we can all learn from my ignorance. that it does not matter in what moment or where we are we should alway listen to the spirit because i had the feeling and being a tired missionary in mexico i decided not to listen because i was being lazy. and almost got my face eaten by this man who thinks i am an alien. 

Um... let me think if i can think of something else that happened this week... cuz i know i am just killing my family with all of the hunka junk that i write in these bad boys. OH. so i really only have one more story. So i did get the opportunity to baptize 2 people this week. that was a very fantastic experience :D Yes i know we were suppose to baptize the whole family but... we have had a rough time with the mother... (she is a tough cookie but... a couple more weeks and God will help her have those feelings that she needs this baptism in her life.) and the dad wants to wait for his wife so that they can do this baptism the same day. (now that is respectable) and this day was very very interesting. probably because of all the things that have happened with this family. I always love seeing the changes that the gospel can make in a family. Probably one of the coolest experiences  that i had the opportunity to be present would have to be when the son offered a prayer. and really it was probably one of the most amazing prayers that i have ever heard in my life. because after he finished the spirit was there so strong and the whole family was crying. (as i was thinking to my self.... so... should we just end with a prayer cuz i don't know if we have already had enough spirit for one lesson.) and as things just started to change in their lives and as they had the opportunity to partake of this baptism. and here are 2 photos of their baptism. 

so this last saturday and sunday was stake conference. and the stake conference was not to cool but the cool part was that my convert of 1 month got a letter that she had the chance to say the closing prayer. and this lady when she offers her prayers i swear that they are so sincere and so true of how she is feeling. Because we all know that in a prayer people usually start with. Our dear kind a gracious Heavenly Father. and i always thought that was great but then i heard this lady start to pray and i really enjoy how she starts out her prayers. if she is praying in the  morning she starts out with "Good morning Heavenly Father" or in its at night she starts with "good night Heavenly Father" and that has really just stuck with me... i'm not quite sure if there is one apostles that has said that we have to start with our dear Heavenly Father or something like that so that is why i think how she prays is perfect and is so original and exactly how she feels in that moment. Because after years of praying we kind of just get in a habit of saying some things because that is just what we have always said and i can loose the heart felt meaning as we pray. That is probably why how my convert prays hit me so hard and made such an impact. so lets just say that she rocks socks with her prayer to end the conference.

and just end i would like to say something about the contacts that we have to do everyday. because there is one elder that told me something that really hit me hard. so usually when you are contacting you do everything you can and if the people say no you move on. but  this elder told me that when the person says no the first time that is really when you show all you know about how they really NEED this in their lives. So now every time when someone is going to tell me no i'm just going to think to my self.... "perfect. now we are actually getting somewhere. and you are telling me no because i didn't say the right thing that strikes your fancy." because every person should say yes you just have to follow the spirit and find that need that everyone has. 

so.... yeah.. nothing to crazy. but that was my week and the things that i learned. yup. not much but just enough. 

Monday, May 12, 2014

Mother's Day!

This week was pretty freakin sick. we accomplished some things that we don't do every week. and yeah... there was another earth quake. (second one in my life.)

so i'm just going to start with the earth quake. so there i was just sitting in the stake center planning my next week.(ok... this isn't a an action movie.... so....) yeah so we were just planning and it was just like another normal day here in the hood (or... mexico) and i was just planning how i was going to make sure that none of our baptisms were going to fall from their date. In one moment i decided to sit back to take a breather (not like i was doing exercise or anything...just a break :D) and in that moment i felt like i fell over a little bit.... and i thought to my self..... well... i have never fainted in my life..... so this is a first and then it hit again. i saw the table move and felt myself like i was going to fall over.... then as my brain was just there trying to find an answer to why i feel like this i thought to my self..... hey gray (oops Elder Anderson) this is probably an earthquake. then all of the elders looked at each other and we all ran outside (because we all know that buildings in mexico are only concrete and more concrete just waiting to fall down.) and that is when we saw all of the people running and screaming as they were leaving the other buildings around us. hahahah (sorry for the laughter) but that is when elders started quoting that when the second coming is here people will walk in the streets like they were drunk, oh wait.... that man is just drunk (ok... that was a little bad... berkeley... probably take that out... ;D) but the earthquake was way stronger than the last one that happened. and it was quite the experience. I hope in the days that are to come there is another one that just so happens to bring a little bit more action to these parts of mexico :D

and.... yeah we also had the opportunity to baptize a hermana:D she is like my mother substitute, always making me sandwiches and worrying about my eating.  she is the one who had the Lord had prepared with the medicine for my companion, so she is very dear to me:D:D:D but the story that is behind this baptism is a pretty good one. So this lady we already had an interview for her and she then says she didn't want to get baptized.... and she also said that if elder anderson leaves she would leave the church so we had to help her get past that too and so we have been working with her and seen so many changes in her life and she has been part of miracles, over the last 3 weeks and so we brought her in again for another interview and... YES she told us that she had the desire to be baptized.:D:D  So this mothers day in Mexico which is saturday not sunday, we had her date so that she could make this commitment. And when we came to her house to take her to the church she was all good and well.. everything change when we hopped in the taxi.... who knows why but... something made her angry... and i knew that this conversation was not going anywhere good in that moment so ya know what you do when things are not going good... well.. you try to talk about something that will make her happy right ? :D:D so i asked her.... hey how has your day of mother's been? and she just told me..... Not good at all..... and i just thought to myself... oh great she was not happy already .... oh great... so while we were in the taxi driving to the church i was trying to make this lady happy so that we could have this joyful experience. and i don't really remember but we did finally get her to smile and forget all of the bad thoughts and things that had happened in her life for the last couple of days...(seen as satan was working on her as hard as we were) and when we got to the church she was happy and we got her baptized and i practically cried because after so much doubting and... all the things that happened miraculously with this hermana... she finally had the opportunity to take this baptism.  :D 

Today for lunch the one legged man who owns our building invited us to lunch. he makes the greatest burgers ever. i loved the cows hooves we were served for sunday on a tostada. t he cream sauce on top made it amazing. between this and the grasshoppers i ate this last week i can say i am really expanding my horizons.

there is a kid in our ward getting ready to go on a mission.  i taught him the paper cross story and he killed it.  the family i am teaching really responded to it and so i thought i should teach Mario this so it would help him wherever he gets called. he will be such a great missionary since he is 22 and excited:D:D:D

i love all the friends i have made in the streets. it is nice to have friends when you are out walking. there is one lady who sells us bread. she tells us she really likes us but she will never be interested in talking to us....but you never know, she may change her mind just like others have. i do wonder why people that don't know me yell at me to go home and to quit trying to steal their uranium???  are we???

The kids here are so cool. i took some pictures so you could see how cute they are. i love mexico:D:D 

                             the pictures of me are being taken by a future photographer:D:D

When you look at the picture of a bunch of elders standing outside of the church you will know what elders look like after they run out of the stake center after the second earthquake that was even harder than the first....i know you told me it wasn't stronger but it was here:D:D

it is such a small world:D:D i am teaching a lady who had a visitor from out of town and guess where she is from.....Pleasant Grove Utah!  crazy that she knew where highland was. 

i wont tell you what she said about highland:D:D

Oh and this mother's day was freakin killer. I'm not going to lie the chance to talk with your mother is probably one of the coolest experiences that you will have here on the mission, except for when a very scary man walks in while you are skyping and looks like he wanted to kill us all, even the blonde people looking back at me on the computer:D:D so glad you all got to feel what mexico can be like sometimes:D:D deep down i know they like us.:D:D:D i Just want so say that i love my mother and that she is kinda weird.... i would probably be more normal and not as cool of a person if it weren't for her :D LOVE YA MOM! :D

um.... yeah... that's about it for this week :D:D 

Monday, May 5, 2014

This week was pretty sick. I have learned my lesson that if i have any baptisms planned i will NEVER write home until after they are baptized. because I know that is just some sort of boasting and because of that God takes all of those baptisms away...... so... yeah :D We did a heck load of contacting this week.... Did some divisions....  some birthdays passed.... no baptisms.... um... yeah. this week was... pretty wonderful. 

So.... i think i will start by explaining about the divisions that we did this last week. So i did divisions with Elder Young. (a freakin champ if you ask me.) this elder is not wanting to stay on his mission and so they put him on splits with me for a day so i could try and help him change his mind.  the mission asks us to contact 15 people in the street every day.  forSo me personally i kinda enjoy contacting so I do 25 to 30 every day. because.... hahah i don't know.... you get to meet some really weird people and some really nice people at the same time :D And usually when we are contacting in my area about 3 out of 45 contacts that we do accept us. but i don't know if we just struck gold or if it was pure luck or the power of God was with us... i have no idea or maybe the Lord doesnt want this elder to go home but we were teaching a whole crap load and didn't have to much time to contact so we only contacted like 24 and out of those 24. 8 People gave us an appointment (and yeah i know you are probably thinking that.... yeah great Elder Anderson... you got an appointment... but were they actually home when you went back to check for them?) and!!!!!!..... I am here to tell you that when they went back 5 of the 8 was the right address!!!!! WHAT A FREAKIN SUCCESS!!! :D ahahah that was a great time. So yeah... that day was a real booster for both of us. by the smile on his face when i introduced him to a talking parrot that we were trying to teach to say elder, you would never guess he was so unhappy and wanted to return home. i have a testimony that hard work can be fun and if you do more it can bring you more happiness.  this kid was the coolest kid i have met. i am glad the president thought i could help him change his mind. two americans are great together and we all feel like going home sometimes:D:D

For cinco de may i cooked for my zone.  i cooked horse chunks, cow chunks, pig chunks and a variety of street animal chunks with a seasoning.  it is freakin sick when we put it in a tortilla. Cookin like a boss n sauce. its called AL PASTOR. its a little bit of every meat that exists.  

one of the members has this cool iguana for a pet. i was on splits with the DL and we stopped by their house so he could see this monster...some might think this is a chupacabra but its not:D:D:D

my mom wants pictures of real mexico so i am adding the blood bag.  thats real mexico:D:D:D

The birthday celebration of my DL and Elder Young who I went on splits with.  i have the greatest zone:D:D:D  

This is me and my DL teaching our zone about how to teach the sabbath day.  it was kind of the president to say that if it wasn't for what elder anderson was doing with all his street contacting the zone would be sinking:D:D  glad he is happy i am working hard because my companion cries because he thinks i am working him too hard but if you dont work hard you want to go home:D:D:D when the president asked me if i would be a DL i told him no because i don't like the numbers thing that they have them push:D:D probably didn't go over very well but i can think of way better ways to motivate than numbers of baptism:D:D:D

I went to the el centro today and the other elders were walking got just a little ahead of me when four guys surrounded me, i thought, they are going to kill me and i am all alone. then one of them asked me if i spoke english and i said no just spanish, then they said i looked like an american and i told them lots of people look like americans in mexico. they said they knew i was an american and i told them i knew i was a mexican and ducked under them and ran :D:D i so didnt need to get killed:D:D 

um.... yeah.... that is about it for this week :D:D:D a whole lot of humility and pain :D:D:D hahah but thats a mission right:D:D:D the joys come... but slowly :D:D

Monday, April 28, 2014

Just a week.

well... this week was not too successful i'm not going to lie... but there will be weeks like that and i look forward to the next week. 

so... this week no one died, we didn't go to the hospital, there wasn't an earthquake, and we didn't baptize......  but yah. :D 

the coolest thing that happened this week would have to be the fact of us finally putting an appointment for this lady who has been coming to church for a heck of a long time. and really it possibly was one of the most powerful moments that i have had here in the mission. we finally go to the point of all the tingo and tango and then she told me that she wants a few more weeks so that she could really feel an answer but we had just prayed to our padre celestial and the power that was in that room  was making this lady just cry and cry and cry and man.... i really can not every explain to you guys how powerful this lesson was. i knew she knew it was true and i knew again because of how we felt:D

And.... yeah. we found a family of 3 and it's going to be rough because the mother does not believe in God.... but some thing that i have been working on for the past ages is really teaching with my eyes and my heart. i know that sounds cheesy but really it works. Because while we were in this message the mom of the family who does not believe in God told me.... "wow the things that you are telling me are completely contrary to the things that i believe and the things that i know are true. but really i can feel your passion Elder Anderson and more than your words i can really feel what you are saying and can see it in your eyes." So.... YES a missionary like me can make progress:D:D 

but yeah:D we are working and.... that's just about it:D have a great week Y'ALL :D

PHOTO OF THE WEEK...Monday, April 28, 2014

So... this photo is pretty sick.... we were having an interview for an investigator that you could say is an eternal investigator. because she has over 20 domingos and doesn't want to get baptized. but with a little bit of elbow grease and a whole lot of help from the Man above we made this interview happen. 

but her interview lasted for like 2 hours and after i had read alma 5, alma 30, 2 nephi 33, moroni 8. i thought to myself.... hey.... lets take some pictures. and yeah. this is what came out.... haters gonna hate . :D 

Monday, April 21, 2014

Terremoto
(Earthquake)

wellp... this week is going to be pretty short in the whole writing thing. . . . . but i'm just going to cover the unusual that happened this week and maybe some other things... ya know... if i feel like typing... :D:D but just a quick run down of the whole jammywham eh? so first the coolest thing that happened this week would have to be the earthquake that happened. and we got our first flash flood AND my comp had to go to hospital so yeah... that would have to be the unusual that passed this week. 

So.... i'm going to write about the flash flood that happened this week. So me and my comp were in the street just walkin (like always) and i had a feeling that i should stop to get my umbrella just in case it started to rain (it has not rained here in like. . . 4 months.) so i went and grabbed it. and not more than 15 minutes after that........it started to rain. . yes, it started to RAIN!!! and ya know when it starts to rain all the people are in their houses so... you really can't contact. and because that this week is Easter week a lot of the members are out for vacations. but luckily we found a member that was in their house and right as we entered their building the rain stopped and we entered their house and shared a message. and when we finished right as we left not more than 2 minutes later it started to rain.... yet again.... and so as me and my comp are just walking in the streets with the water up to our ankles. my comp was wondering what in the world i was doing as i am just singing "i'm singin in the rain" but yeah it was a pretty good time. and i learned that the water that falls from the sky here tastes just as horrible as you would imagine. and this story i believe ties into another story of how my comp was in the hospital. 

SO.. then as me and my comp were just studying in the morning until 12 like we do everyday but this friday was a bit different. because in the morning we were just studying personally and at first i thought that my comp was shaking my table and trying to get my attention. and then all of the sudden i felt like i was going to fall over out of my seat. so my first thoughts were: man i need to drink more water so that i don't faint. and when i stood up i felt the ground move beneath my feet and just thinking... AM I DRUGGED? i looked at my comp and asked him.... is the ground moving? and that is when the ground started to move more and more and more and the tables started to shake as my comp told me" get in the door way its more safe!!!!!" and i just had to say "bro we have to get into the street if its anything like the movies some freakin sick things are going to happen. " so as we were going for the door of our apartment it was hard to put the key in the hole because the door was shaking and my hand was shaking and those two really aren't a good combination. :D  and when we got into the street you could only see everyone filing out of their buildings and into the streets and people running all over the place screaming and crying and telephone poles falling and us trying to stay on our feet (it wasn't insanely

strong but it was sufficient:D) yeah.. i gotta say that it was probably one of the coolest things that i have experienced in my life.  :D I can't really explain it cuz it's a feeling that i have never felt before in my life. and in the end of all the chaos and craziness only a few light and telephone poles fell down and no one was hurt. so thats good. :D hahah yeah... 

oh so the day after the earth quake my comp woke up feeling a little bit sick. but waking up and feeling sick here in mexico is just like waking up and you hair is a mess. it just happens.. and often. so we really didn't thing very much of it. but as the day went on he started to tell me that it is starting to hurt more and more with every hour just to breath. and that is when i just thought to myself.... um... this is not good... it should not hurt to breath. and so i called my DL and he came to my house and at this point elder Ovalle was in bed and could not move and every breath that he took was killing him. and so my DL called the ZL's and they came to our house and called president and told him that we were going to take my comp to the hospital. and just so this whole story is not like 10 and a half hours long.... we finally made it to the hospital and the got us in after like 2 hours of waiting. and me and my DL and one of the ZL's we were waiting out side as the doctors were doing the tests on my comp. A QUICK SIDE STORY. and while we were waiting for my comp a man on a bike came by us and started asking for money to see if we and help him out and one thing that i have learned from my mom that you should always listen to the spirit when someone asks for money. because he is the one that is going to tell you if they really need this help or not. and in this moment i just felt like i should not give him money. so i told him"sorry man... i got nothing right now" (which was kinda true... i only had 18 pesos.) and after i told him that i turned my back to him and started talking to my DL again and all of the sudden the face of my DL just turned to stone and he stopped talking to me... and i was just thinking what the heck is going on with him... so i started talkin with my ZL at that point. and like 15 seconds later the guy on the bike went away. and that is when my DL asked me.  "did you know that the dude on the bike pulled out a pistol when you turned your back to him?" and with just complete shock i responded "um... no? i really just didn't notice." and my DL told me and my ZL "are you serious he had the gun pointed at you and elder (ZL) for like 10 seconds and then all of the sudden he just packed up and left." and i was just thinking... man.... we have to be in mexico where a man can pull out a gun in front of a hospital and not have a whole swarm of police on him. SO that was a small miracle that i was not in the stretcher next to my comp:D:D:D:D:D:D hahah kinda funny eh? YEAH THAT WAS THE OTHER SMALL SIDE STORY it makes me wonder what angel he saw that scared him off. i would like to read the letter he wrote home to his mother that night. then we might know what made hime leave without shooting me in the head.:DD....angels?  has to be there certainly werent any police to help.

when my comp left the hospital and they gave us a list of medication that he had to take and so we decided that we would call president so that he could send us more money so that we could afford this medication right? that sounds logical. right? so when we call him and tell him that we have no money because it didn't come 3 days ago like it should have and we asked him if he could send us more because no one has money. he told us "to go find money with the members or other missionaries because the money is not going to come before next thursday:" WHAT ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!!  my comp has an infections in his throat that extends down to almost his plumones and we are going to wait for a whole week for the money to come? so finally i was just thought man... i am just going to pay for this medication from my home funds because my comp cant wait a week for this so i was going to need to get to a bank. and so by the time we got home and got my comp into his bed all the banks were closed and all of the places that sold this medicine were closed and the doctors told us that he has to start his medication as soon as possible and so me and my ZL went looking for a place and we looked for like... 1 hour and we found nothin... and when we were walking back to the house wondering what we were going to do we found the Hermana Irma Morales (my investigator) and she asked me why i looked so worried. and so i explained what had just happened and what kind of medication that we needed  and we were not sure where we would find it because all the places are closed right now.... and this is where the miracle happened:D:D:D she looks at the paper and looks at me and looks at the paper and just started to chuckle a little bit. and then looks up from the paper and tells me . well... its kinda funny... but back about a month ago remember when i was sick? yeah... well i didn't have the same thing that your comp has but they gave me these two medications that you need. would you like me to give them to you? I was just thinking to my self... you have got to be kidding me! how is it that our investigator has the medicine that we need in this moment. angels are watching out for me. so clearly i said SI and asked how much i would need to give her for these medications and she just told me that its all good you have helped me enough with your words and i don't need these anymore. so she gave them to us and we headed back home and gave the medication to my comp and yeah... He lives happily ever still. :D

today for pday we didnt get invited to play soccer with the rest of the district because my comp likes to tell the president things that are not whole truths.  he seems to like attention from trying to share information about other missionaries and what they are doing in a twisted way. because of this we try to keep him from only reporting me to the president and not the whole district. it works better that way so he only thinks i break rules (which i dont-and that drives my comp crazy) but i have come to see that people who are insecure like to say things bad about those who are really successful. last week he must have said something about me because the president asked me if i was lying about my numbers....I AM A HARD WORKER and it seems to shock people we are having so much success but if you work hard the lord really blesses you.......i knew for sure satan was using my comp and my pres to discourage me from working so hard but i just couldnt let it get to me. i may not be baptizing millions but each street contact and each lesson i teach..... i know the people feel the spirit.... and that is why satan wants to stop my success. i know it is important to always know where you stand with the Lord as you may never know who will question your integrity 

and the two photos are of my version of "Singing in the Rain" Mexico style:D 

ps....the rain tasted terrible:D:D

wellp.. that's all.. yeah..