Thursday, August 27, 2015

Mexico City - Week #52


hey all,

i hope everyones doing well. im doing good, thanks for asking ;) this week was a good one.. we had some really exitosos days. the only problem was that not very many people made it to church on sunday.. theres always this week though. 
im really looking forward to elder Christofferson coming this miercoles! its going to be such a beautiful meeting. i cannot wait! one of the 12 apostales of Christ is coming to talk to us! its the same as if luke, matthew, or peter were to be talkingwith us. so awesome! we are in the process of finding news like always haha. we are teaching about 5 different families but each one has the impediments keeping them from progressing. just need to continue helping them learn though. i think this next month should be pretty successful. anyways, thats about it for the week. i love you guys and hope you have a good day and week! xoxo bye!

Elder Anderson

Mexico City - Week #51

hey all, 

this week went well. the highlight being that we went to the puertas abiertas del templo. it was awesome! i felt so good in there. i cannot wait to do sessions there when it opens in septiembre. i know it well help me a lot! gerardo, one of our investigadores, finally prayed to know if the things we taught him were true. it was hard for him to start praying because he didnt really believe in God. we finally got him to pray one night before he went to bed and he said when he started, he heard someone say his name. he said he thinks it was his father who passed away a couple years ago. then, when he finished the prayer, he felt super tranquilo  and really peaceful. he told us he recieved his answer! he has a baptismal date for the 5th of septiembre. the other investigadores didnt make it to church unfortuantely. but theres always this week. im still loving my area. we are having good lessons and all around success here. good stuff! anyways, i love you guys so much and miss you! have a great week everyone! xoxo

Elder Anderson

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Mexico City - Week #50

hey guys, 

i have some amazing news!! Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the quorum of the 12 is coming to our mission to talk to us on august 26!! one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ! im so pumped! its going to be amazing. pres stutz has already sent us stuff to study and we will be fasting when he talks to us and everything to invite the Spirit to testify to us. it is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience! im so excited!
anyways, the work is going good. 3 new investigadores came to church this week which was great. weve had lots of good success in this area so im happy to be here. i will keep you guys posted on the progress of these investigadores. i will say that all 3 have very many doubts haha. 2 are a couple with a kid, not married, catholics. the other is namesd gerardo and is finsihing up his studies at UNAM (university in mexico city). he has studied in philosophy so he has a bunch of crazy questions but is very open to the Gospel. right now we are trying to help him understand that God exists and to build his relationship with Him. its kinda tough but rewarding.
my toe is doing a lot better now thankfully. i have another appointment meircoles with the podologo and hopefully it should be the last one ever. fingers crossed.
thats about it for the week. thanks for all the emails and evrything! i love you all and hope you have a great week!! xoxox

Elder Anderson

Mexico City - Week #49

hey all,

this past week has been really great. we were able to get santiago in the water. unfortunately, his son was one month shy of being able to baptize him. santiago didnt want to wait lol. it was a good experience anyways because his son and his daughter were able to give talks about his baptism and confirmation. i think he had a great experience. right now, we are in the process of finding news like always. i dont think ive ever explained how exactly we find new people to teach but first, its with references from the ward or salt lake. they dont come in very often though so we usually go to our next source, contacting. when we need to find new people to teach, we go out talking to people in the streets or knocking doors. one out of every 10 or so accept a cita with us and about 1 out of every 10 of the ones who accepts the citas gets baptized. right know, we are really gunnin to find a whole family to convert. to be completely honest though, everything is based on the Lords time. if he wants someone to be found, he shows them to us. i have seen countless experiences of it and i know it to be true. 
apart from the work, we went to teotihuacan yesterday which was why i wasnt able to write. it was a super neat experience! i have lots of pictures to send you guys. our tour guide was LDS and gave us the tour using the Book of Mormon. it was really cool. many people believe that whenn Christ came to the Americas, he came to teotihuacan and that it was  temple one day. very fascinating.
but yeah, thats about it for the week. i love you all and hope you have a great day and week! nos vemos!

Elder Anderson

Mexico City - Week #48

hey guys,
i thought i sent you all the general earlier but i guess not. this past week was great. had lots of exito. ana maria and encarncaion are continuing strong. they are super converts. we have a baptism planned for this saturday for a man named santiago. hes a great guy. actually, when i got to the capilla for the first time in this area, he was there and i had always thought he was a member until his sister told us that he wanted to start taking the lessons haha. he has 2 kids who are members and his son will prolly be baptizing him this saturday. its been a neat experience with him.
i had (hopefully) my last procedure done on my toe thursday. it went ok. its just in recovery right now. should be all good to go from here on out. sorry this is a short one but im doing well and i hope you are all doing well as well. i hope you all have a great week! love you guys! xoxo peace out!

Elder Anderson

Mexico City - Week #47

hey guys,

great week this week. we finally got ana maria in the water along with encarnacion. hes the one that reminds me of papa. i baptized ana maria and my companion baptized encarnacion. was a really sweet experience for the both of them. they are both super converted to the Gospel which is awesome.. ana maria is so strong. all of the family of ana maria came to here baptism and afterwards, we had a party at her house. her family now calls me her padrino because thats who they call the one who baptizes you in the catholic church haha. it was a neat experience in all. last night, we went back to ana marias house to teach her entire family as well. we taught them all the restauracion. its was a good lesson. very spiritual. everyones hearts were touched by the end of it. now we will just start the process with all of them. poco a poquito haha. 
we had thinly-sliced chicken breasts veggies and refried beans served with tortillas and salsa yesterday for lunch. i cant remember anything else from the week. maybe the pics will refresh my memory haha. sorry. i love you guys so much. thanks for all the love and support you throw my way. have a fantastic week! xoxo

Elder Anderson

Mexico City - Week #46

hey guys,

this week was good, unfortunately, we didnt have the baptism of ana maria.. she needs a special interview with the prez. because of something she had done in her adolescent years.. im sure you can guess what.. but its all good cuz she is scheduled with the prez for miercoles. she will get baptised this saturday with another old dude we are teaching named encarnacion. pretty funny name eh? i thought so anyways. 
apart from that, i cant remember what else.. oh we made a lil fire behind our house and burned my shirt for the year mark. then we ordered pizza. dominos of course because the mexican pizza tastes like garbage. double the price   but hey im a gringo and as far as that goes here in mexico, i got loads of money! (according to what all the mexican people are trying to tell me) im still waiting for that supposed payday to come though lol.
thats about it. i got some good pícs for you guys though. i will send them rightr now. have a great week everyone! love you all! xoxo

Elder Anderson

Mexico City - Week #45

hey guys,

this week went well. nothing too crazy. as with the investigators, we went with ana maria this past thursday and found out she wasnt married.. shes an old lady and has been with her husband for 36 yrs! i really dont understand the whole marriage thing with the people here. people HATE having a commitment. anyways, that lil problem pushed her baptism a week back to this coming saturday the 11th. the great news is, is that we already got them married lol. we came back the next day after find out and scheduled an appointment with a judge and them for saturday morning, the 4th. it was pretty awesome because that doesnt really happen so quick like it did. it just took a lil coaxing on our part and she was gun-hoe for it. so we were at the municipal half the day on saturday. i got some pics i will send. it went great. moments like that are the ones every missionary hopes and waits for. matrimonios and bautismos. so awesome. so that was really the highlight of the week for me. 
other then that, we are just working hard. getting fechas set up and trying to find news. these next couple weeks should be really exitosas. we went to the center today to get a couple things. was fun but tiring. ohh and im back with just one comp now. elder perez. its good to be back to normal but it sure was fun being in a trio. thats about all i can remember right now because everything just kinda melts together these days. but i love you guys! xoxo bye!

Elder Anderson

Mexico City - Week #43

hey everybody,

so, im one of 4 missionaries in the ward. the companion of the other set of missionaries went home. he had like 15 months and just couldnt do it anymore so he decided to go home. so his comp, elder martinez came with us. now we are in a trio until president figures out what to do with elder martinez. we shouldnt be together very much longer though. everything should be back to normal by the end of this week i would imagine. its my second time being in a trio. i have had a bunch a comps and only 2 areas so far haha. i guess thats how it goes though.

im still going the podologo. ive been there a lot lately. im jsut having problems with my right foot big toe on the left side. but they should fix it all up nice and pretty in these next couple weeks. 

we are still having good success in the area. hopefully we should have a baptism within the next couple weeks. we contacted a guy named encarnacion but he likes us to call him chon. so hno chon reminds me a lot like papa. and he actually owned a bus business around 20 yrs ago but he lost it because of the economy and everything. then he started working as a handyman type but for buses. he is like 82 yrs old but still has truck and gets called every so often to help some people out with parts and other little things for their buses. hes very very kind and we had a 2 hour lesson with him. he came to church yesterday and we have a temple visitors center trip planned with him for this miercoles. hes a super cool guy. hes like my papa, just spanish speaking haha.

thats it for this week. i hope you all have a good day! love you you guys! bye! xoxo

Elder Anderson

Mexico City - Week #44

hey,

so i went in for another operation on thursday. it went really well. came back to stay at the presidents house after and have been here since. i go back to my area tomorrow morning. ived been pretty bored here though. not much to do other than eat or sleep. the food is amazing here! american! they definitely spend some money on food here.. so good.. this has been my 3rd and hopefully last time being in the presidents home. all for toe problems. so, moving forward, i just have to go to more podologos to get trimmings and cleanings done for the rest of my mission.
the area is still good with lots of success. everythings tranquilo here. anyways, i hope you all have a wonderful week! i love you guys! xoxo

Elder Anderson

Mexico City - Week #42

hey all,
i had changes this week. elder hernandez-garcia left and i got elder perez in return. elder perez is good but i do missed my old comp. we had a good first week of work. ive never been a big fan of getting to know my new comps and all lol. mom and dad know how i always havent been the biggest social butterfly haha. but its been good getting to know him.
ana maria is still golden. shes such a sweetheart. she is just so open to the Gospel it crazy.. theres such a difference between pushing the Gospel on people who dont want it, as compared to when they do want it. my experience with her is a reminder of that im here to find people that are ready for the Gospel.
had another toe operation today. they are never fun. one day my toes will be good again. one day lol. have another appointment in a couple days. we went to the center today. my comp needed to buy some shoes and a couple other things. we ate at KFC there. it was good. its always cool to walk in the center. such neat stuff there. 
anyways, thats about it. i hope you all can have a good one this week. love you guys! xoxo

Elder Anderson

Mexico City - Week #41

hey all

i had a great week. we had great success with the people we are teaching. especially this one older lady and her husband. we contacted her a few 2 weeks a ago and she accepted a baptismal date for july 4th. she actually started crying the first time we talked to her. right on her doorstep. she has accepted the gospel with open arms. and yesterday, she even took her husband to church, who is in a wheelchair. she is a golden.
we didnt work starting from saturday at 6 o clock evening to all day sunday because mexico had their elections for poltical leaders. so we went to church and came directly home to do nothing all day lol. just read the scriptures, slept, played checkers, and ate. was a good lil break though.
i cant really think of anything else exciting that happened this week. nothing too crazy. anyways, i love you all and hope you have a good week! xoxoxo

Elder Anderson