A Rough Week

Well, I think I’m finally getting the feel of the mission, at least, the hard side of it.

This last week was pretty hard. We walked and talked with a lot of people, but didn’t have a lot of fire with us, I don’t know, it was just rough.

However, we had intercambios with some elders in our zone, and I got to lead our area for a day with an elder from my group. Two white dudes who don’t know a lot of Spanish walking around trying to talk to people about the gospel. Freaking ballers!! The truth is that I was super stressed about it, but it ended up being okay. We talked with a lot of people, mostly me cuz Elder Boss doesn’t really talk a lot, and we were able to set some appointments for the next day.

Later that day, something super strange happened. We found this guy named Jorge. I knocked on his door and we started talking in Spanish, and he was like, “Oh, I need to go grab my shirt,” and I was like.............wait what??? And then his son was like, “Dad did you ask them if they can speak English?” and I was like, “English? Yes!!!!!! I do that!!!!!”

We ended up talking for a while about him and his family. Turns out this guy know just about everything you can know about every religion out there, including ours. He has friends who are members, and he’s read the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. Unfortunately, he doesn’t believe that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior. He’s a Jewish convert, so I don’t really know what we are going to do with him haha. He doesn’t believe he can receive an answer through the Holy Ghost, because he thinks, “feelings can be manipulated and forced, my belief is based off of logic.” Buennnnnooooo.

Marilin can’t get baptized this week because she didn’t come to church, so that’s the worst. But she is reading in the Book of Mormon like a champ, vamos a ver con ella.

Nephi 17:50-51: this is when Nephi is trying to build a ship, and man that man had faith. He was commanded by God to build a ship, and he knew that the Lord was going to provide a way for him to do it. I feel the same way about Spanish right now. I’ve been called to serve in Argentina and to preach the gospel in Spanish, so the Lord is going to provide a way for me to learn the language. I just need to do everything I can first. It’s not always easy, but i know it’s going to happen.

Last thing, in the Book of Mormon, whenever Laman and Lemuel are talking, I always think of Gollum, from The Lord of the Rings, super funny. Don’t believe me, go ready some lines lol so funny.

Love you guys, hope all is well!

Elder Anderson

Que Loco Che

Hola Hola,

Aight so right to the goods,

Had my first asado (Argentine BBQ) and holy crap is was gooooood. Way to0 much meat, I was like, “Hey we ain’t breaking the commandments, right?” haha.

We found a mother named Mariela and su hija Noelia, and we were teaching them the Plan de Salvación, and after something crazy happened. Noelia, she has 9 years, said, “I had a dream about people like you guys," and we were like what? Apparently she had a dream with like thousands of people dressed like us all gathered together, I’m guessing it was Conference, and she said her and her mom were there with us. Elder Mckeachnie and I were like, ummmmmm wow. Sadly we haven’t been able to teach them since, but vamos a ver jeje.

We were eating lunch at a member’s house, Julia, a super old lady who is super sweet and can talk more than my sweet mother, which is insane (nothing but respect momma haha). Anyway, we walked in and there was this green bird just running around on the ground trying to peck this little boy. We sat down at the table to eat, and this bird just would not give up. It was like the kid was caked in peanut butter or something, and let’s be honest, who could actually resist that. So for the entire hour, we got to watch this kid try just about anything to get this bird to go away, it was quite entertaining.

We were walking down the street after a nice rainy night, and this car was coming up behind us, and I, being the idiot that i am, didn’t move, and I received a lovely splash of water all over my back. I did the only thing I could do: I laughed it off, just another day in the field. Go team.

I am learning very very very slowly, and it’s hard because I want to teach, but whenever I try and take the wheel, it doesn’t go as planned. I need to let the spirit drive the lesson, and not my stupid brain lol. Voy a aprender paciencia eventualmente.

Shoutout to my sick nasty brother Isaac and his band for taking the W in battle of the bands. Proud of you bud! We totally wrote the song together soooooo. Also, if you haven’t already, everyone ask my brother Clark to see his and Isaac’s music video about hot sauce, its so funny.

Love you alllll, thanks for your prayers!

Godspeed,

Elder Anderson

Esperanza

Perdón mis amigos, my last email was super short. Had a change in the rules so all of my emails are going to be a bit shorter. If you have a problem, bring it up with my mission president lol.

Guess what y’all, we’re going to be visited by an apóstol del Senor!!! We don’t know which apostle but we’re super hyped.

Okay so if yall remember Estella, the sister who can’t read, well she finally came to church with her super controlling husband, Rubin. Rubin is super tight, but the only way we’re going to be able to baptize Estella is if we can get to him first.

We found this Evangelico guy named Roberto, and man he is great. When he prays it’s like we’re in a sermon or something. We need to teach that when we pray to our Heavenly Father, it should be done in reverence and with respect. But man, can he pray. He’s like, “Oh Lord, please Lord, bless us Lord, be good to us Lord, oh Lord Jesus, we need you Lord Jesus!” After our first lesson with him, my comp was like, man we’ve got some work to do. I was loving it.

Okay so any of you ever tried eggplant, aka berenjena? Well it’s horrible and I don’t know why people eat it. It’s like eating squid, but it tastes like dirt!! Super great. Love it.

We found some 15 year olds just chilling in the street sharing a beer............ya know the usual, so we started talking with them, and they’re actually sweet. I hope we can help them out. We’re going to try and show them that there are a lot better things that they could be doing with their lives besides drinking at age 15......ya we finna drop some knowledge.

Anyway, love you all. Hope this email was a little bit better. I love the work, it’s hard, and I’m trying to speak more,but for the most part, I’m still sorta in the same spot. I need to be patient.

Elder Anderson

Fotos- frozen grapes (if you haven’t tried it, you haven’t lived), a member made us this massive hamburguesa, ya it was nuts, and ya so am I lolol.

First Baptism

Okay, I have no time at allll!!! Had a change in the rules so I’ll be fast.

Norma y Lucas are now members of the church! I confirmed them on my birthday in sacrament meeting.

Mom and dad, I got the package!!! I loved it so much.

Shout out to the Winkle family, I gave Norma y Lucas the HLJ rings!!!!!

I’m speaking a little bit better cada dia.

A drunk man started fake-punching me like I was a punching bag while we were on a bus, so that was weird.

Just want to say that I don’t have a ton of pictures of the area because I can’t take my camera into the street.

Marilin, a teenager that we’re teaching, invited us over yesterday for a birthday dinner for me. Super nice family, they bought me a cake, i almost cried.....kidding.....sorta.

Forgot to say, i bought this super nice bag for the mission, and it totally broke like in the second week, so I fixed it with one of my Nauvoo braids, go team.

I love you all. Mom I’m sorry this one is super short. I loved the testimonies from the fam this week, sorry if I didn’t respond, no time.

I want you all to know that this gospel has the ability to change lives, and it’s changing the lives of the people we’re teaching right now, and it’s changing me, Jesus es mi luz!!!

Chao,

Elder Anderson