OH YA!!!

Nov. 21, 2011

Hey Family!!!

So happy to hear you are all doing pretty great and stuff. I'm doing really great here! Life is good and the work is even better! This coming week is really big too because it is my MOM'S BIRTHDAY!!!! ¡¡¡Feliz cumpleaños mamá!!! I love you so much and am sending you good vibes and a big Kiss!! The mission is where I need  to be and my Gift to you this year is my faithful service and honoring the great legacy of Spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we have in our family. We have a pretty cool tradition of that. We are all missionaries in our own sense and always can be examples to others.

This week has been crazy. I did three intercambios which means I leave my area for the day and trade companions with someone else and work in their area for the Day. So in the past week I have had the pleasure to work in the areas of Thomas Flores, Piñyero, and Wilde. It has been awesome! I learned a lot from some great Elders. In Thomas Flores, me and Elder Cowan were working together. It was really interesting because we got here at the same time which means our Spanish is at a level that is less than awesome. So we went out to go talk to people about the Gospel and stuff because that is the best thing you could possible talk about, and we found this one guy. OH MAN! We could not understand a word he said. He said something about Soldando la Vigen en una caja y cosas como asi. Pero no entendí nada. Pienso que él estaba boracho o algo. But ya. He was talking about welding the Virgin Mary in a Box or something and me and Elder Cowan just kinda stared at him blankly. It was great! We smiled and acted like we knew what he was saying and when we walked away around the corner both of us died laughing. That was a way good experience. Classic.

The other two intercambios were with Latin Elders so a little less of a disaster, but still way fun. We did some good work.

This week I've really been thinking about my calling as a Missionary. In the Manual that we use to study called "Preach My Gospel" it says that one of our purposes is to tell people and remind them that God loves them. I don't know why it surprised me so much. We do that everyday anyway, but when I really made a point to tell every person I talked with that God is our loving Heavenly Father and we are His children and he loves us, I saw people soften and change. I think deep down inside every single one of us realizes that we are special. But maybe we don't realize how much. We are literal spirit Children of God. As such we are able to inherit all that is his. Think about that. In the scriptures God says, "This is my work and my Glory, to bring to pass the immortality and Eternal life of man." He wants us to have all he has, to be all he is. Are we living up to our potential? We have a woman we know here that is physically and mentally abused. We told her one day, "Do you realize that you are a Daughter of God? No one has the right to treat you like that!" And it was like all of a sudden she remembered! The light bulb went off and she said, "YA! That's right!! I am a daughter of God! I don't have to take crap from anyone! I'm special!" I hope we can all look deep and really realize how special we are. Each and every one of us has the potential to one day become like our Heavenly Father. To become like God and have all that he has. YOU ARE MORE SPECIAL THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE!!!!! DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU DIFFERENT!!!! I love you all so much. I wish I could sit down and tell you this face to face but this will have to do for now. God exists. He is Heavenly Father and he loves us more than we know.

 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Revelations 3and 20

He stands at the door and knocks. Are we willing to let him in?

Love,

Elder Anderson

Pic 1 The "Cami" Carneceria

Pic 2 Me, Brother Emiliano Perez (old) and Quique (Young) after the service project in the community version of Jeffco Action Center in Colorado- called El Quincho

Pic 3 Check out Quique's shirt

Pic 4 Putting my name on the wall for all the stuff we did. What did I do?.....

Pic 5 I burned stuff. We cleaned up a community Parque and painted the Homeless Shelter. Way awesome.

Pic 6 Elder Guzman from Tucuman. Found this street sign in Piñyero