Adios, Media Agua

Hello friends,

We got transfers and I’m now in Mendoza city in an area called Pascual Segura as a zone leader. My area is straight city, the complete opposite of Media Agua. I’ll be serving in a ward for the first time, and I’m so excited. My comp’s name is Elder Valencia from Spain. Seems like a very sharp guy. Think we’re gonna work well together. Guess he knows like 3 other languages, but we gonna see jaja.

Leaving Media Agua was rough. Cried like a wee lad in sacrament meeting. Gonna miss all the members and the people that we were teaching.

This last week, we went and helped Javier Morales and his family with the house that they’re building. It was super fun to help out and learn how to make cement. Super cool. Javier and his entire family went to church on Sunday, and he and his wife Jessica are going to take time to go get married civilly so that they can get baptized the day after. So we’re waiting for them to tell us the day. They are super super excited, and so are we jaja. I’ve never seen a family so eager to learn more about the gospel in my life. They’re reading and studying every single folleto that we’ve given them, but like with the scriptures. That doesn’t happen all too often, almost never jaja. Love it love it love it!!!

Anyway, I don’t have a whole lot of time, but I sure do love being a missionary. I’m really excited for the chance I have to be zone leader and to learn and grow! Hope you’re all happy and healthy.

Elder Anderson

El Clima de San Juan

Hello dear friends and family,

What a week it was in Media Agua, San Juan, Argentina. The weather is quite amazing here, and when I say amazing I d’ont mean, “Ah, let’s go outside and enjoy the weather,” more like “Wait what is happening to the sky? Why am I sweating in winter? Why is everyone running inside?” kind of amazing. Its amazingly strange. Super super cold in the morning, and during the day it’s almost hot. On Sunday, we had what they call a viento sonda, which is like a low key sandstrom like what happens in Hidalgo (ya know that super sweet movie about John Hopkins and his horse...if you don’t know what I’m talking about, go do yourself a favor and watch it, it’s fantastic). Anyway, we had a small one of those storms, sorta. It’s not quite as dramatic, but the temperature changed to super super hot and gross, and then about an hour later, it was sooooooo cold. I’ve got a video of it on my camera. Super weird.

Anyway, we taught a lot this last week, and man it felt great. We found 20 new people that were pretty interested, so that was super great.

One of our investigators named Jesus (what a name to have) went to church on Sunday and really enjoyed it. We’re very excited about him and his family because they seem to be really interested in this topic of eternal families. The dad Santiago was asking us a lot of questions about baptism, so ya we’re pumped.

The Morales family, the couple who went to church last week, had plans to go to church this week with their whole family, but last Monday their daughter´s appendix ruptured, so they were in the city the whole week. Super super sad. Freakin Satan. But the surgery went well, so we’re gonna pass by to check up on them this week. If you would, keep them in your prayers please.

Other than that, this might be my last week in Media Agua, so we’ll see what’s gonna happen to me jaja.

I love this work, and I love Jesus.

Hasta el lunes que viene,

Elder Anderson

La Actividad

Helllloooooooooooooo people who read my super lame emails, how’s it going?

For the first time in my mission, we planned an activity and got to actually do it! It was so much fun. The activity was called “Game Night” because the members are learning English jaja. Anyway, it was pretty much a game of jeopardy but with topics like prophets, scriptures, church history, and a little section of English. It went extremely well. The members are pretty competitive here, and there were a few times when we had to calm them down and remind them that they weren’t playing for the world cup, jaja but they did really great, and they learned a lot. I’ll put some pics on here for y’all.

Last night we were teaching a man named Oscar about the Book of Mormon, and he told us something super cool/woah moment type thing. We had just finished explaining the book and he said to us, “I’ve heard lots of people tell me that this book is evil, and that it goes against everything that the bible teaches, but I want to read it for myself to really know. Everytime that you’ve come to my home, I’ve felt something special, and I want to learn more.” After he told us that, I looked over to my comp, and he had the same look of awe on his face. It’s crazy how hard Satan tries to get people to not read the Book of Mormon, because he knows the power and truthfulness that it contains. I testify with all my heart that we’re in a war, and that it’s our job to share the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone, because this war that we’re in continues to get worse and worse. But we don’t need to fear if we’re doing the things that our prophet tells us. Please don’t take for granted the great blessing it is to know that we’re children of God, and that He has a plan for us, and that if we’re obedient to His laws and commandments, we will be protected from this ever changing and darkening world, Mosiah 2:41.

Love you guys so much! Have a great week.

Elder Anderson

A Humbling Story

Hola,

This week was super great because we got to listen to Elder Bragg from the Seventy! We took a big ole bus down to Mendoza and all us missionaries got together, and man it’s always super great when the mission gets together. Elder Bragg is a champ! I learned a lot from him about prayer and what I can do for my comp. The power of prayer baby, gotta love it.

Been learning how to cook out here on the mission, I’ll send some pics. It’s a process, but I’m getting better. So hyped to cook for you mom!

Super quick story. So we met this family of three boys who are members who are living here in Media Agua, and the other day we went by to see how they were doing, and we found out that they pretty much don’t have anything. Like we asked the youngest brother if we could come inside and sit down with him and share a message, and he told us that they don’t have any chairs. So we ended up sitting on the floor of their house to share a quick little message. Turns out, this family of boys just recently lost their father a few months ago in a motorcycle crash, and the mom lives with another man in Mendoza. And on top of all that, both his older brothers took off to Mendoza for a little while, so he’s all by himself. As this young man Johnny was telling us his story, it was like it wasnt that big of a deal to him, like it was something normal. It was a really humbling moment for me. Anyway, we shared a little bit of the Plan of Salvation to Johnny, and made sure that he knew that God loves him. We ended up inviting him to drink some hot chocolate with some members to help him feel better, and so that the members could get to know him.

Anyway, we had a super great week. We found a lot of great new people that we’re gonna teach. I love teaching this gospel everyday, it’s the best.

Love you guys,

Elder Anderson

Fotos- the pic with all the people is us with the members and Johnny

Dreams

This week we were teaching a family that lives in a very humble home, and the mother told us that she had had trouble sleeping because of a dream she kept having. In the dream, we were teaching her about the church, and we kept saying the name of the church, and that she needed to pray about it. She told us she had the dream like 3 times, and that’s why she was so eager to talk with us again. Sounds like they want to continue learning more, but they gotta get married first jaja.

We tried to put together an activity with the young men from the branch, but it ended up not going how we wanted, but it’s a process. Trying to work more and more with the members, they’re all new converts so we’re all learning together.

We’re finally in the thick of winter, so that’s been great......not. It’s pretty flippin cold.

Started reading the Book of Mormon again............I LOVE THE WORD OF GOD! Y’all best be reading!