Week 26! Almost a 1/4 of the way through!

Hey all!

These are the fotos of the last little bit! Hope you like them! I really love this area that I am in. It is called San Vicente and the people are incredible. This last week has been really good. We've worked hard and got paid in some serious blessings. There is no work more rewarding than missionary work that I know of! So awesome! The Scripture that has stuck with me this week is found in 2 Nephi 8:7:

 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart I have written my law, fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

We get laughed at and mocked and hit and robbed all the time (less in San Vicente) but none of this matters! We just keep on trucking! The revilings of men will come and go, but our guilt if we don't do our best because of somebody else will stick with us for a while. I'd rather take all the robbings and nasty comments than give up and lose the opportunity to help someone else. It is always worth it to buck up and keep going. It is hard, but the grass actually is greener on the other side. You just have to get there and it turns out there are a lot of nasty people in the way. I guess that is life though. Keep working hard and chin up! It is always worth it to be extraordinary!

Love

Elder Anderson

Baptism in San Vicente

Statue of Joseph Smith in San Vicente!

Super Man in San Vicente

Fellow missionary

"Colorado Christmas Tree" with Family Ornaments sent from all over the United States

Hey Fam!

Hey Fam!

Another awesome week here in San Vicente!!! I only have two minutes to write you all and so I want to tell you that you are all awesome. I know that your prayers make a huge difference in my life and this week I've really been grateful for all you do for me. I wish I could send you photos but unfortunately the cyber here is crap so I cannot. In the week that is coming we'll go to a different one I think and try to send them from there. God is real and loves us so much. Keep on keeping on and just do your best! Found an awesome scripture to share with ya'll. I think it is Jacob 4:10 that says:

“Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works.”

 Sometimes I for sure tell God "what I need" or what is "best for me" but rather I should ask and seek and try and do things his way. Turns out he knows more about that I need than I do sometimes. I love you all and hope you are awesome!!!!

Love,

Elder Anderson

YA-Jan. 9, 2012

Hey All!

Had a great week here in San Vicente. In fact I would say this has been one of the greatest weeks of the entire mission. We worked so hard and saw so many awesome things. We found alot of people to teach this week and have invited 7 people to be baptized and they said yes!!! That means we have alot of work to help them arrive. This gospel and church and religion is kinda different than many because it is more than all those things. It is a lifestyle and to really be converted to this gospel, you have to change alot. You have to give up alot of vices, right alot of wrongs and promise to remember Christ and stand as a witness of him at all times and in all things and in all places. It isn't just something you do for fun and continue with life like nothing happened. The purpose of all of this is to become more and more like our Savior Jesus Christ and end up in the same place as he is! That is a whole lot of work!!! It is so worth it though! I am the person I am because of the things I have learned and the respuestas(can't think of the word) I've received from my prayers.

We had a really interesting experience the other day that I want to share with all of you. We stopped and talked to a lady watering her flowers and in the end this is how our conversation ended up. She said to  us"I know that what you have is better and has more truth then what I have, but I am comfortable where I am and I'm not willing to change." We asked her "So even if there were something better out there you wouldn't work for it? You would settle for the mediocre?" She looked me straight in the eyes and said "Yes. I'm not willing to work if I don't have to." It made me think of a scripture in Alma 5:26-28

 

26 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

 27 Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their sins?

 28 Behold, are ye stripped of pride? I say unto you, if ye are not ye are not prepared to meet God. Behold ye must prepare quickly; for the kingdom of heaven is soon at hand, and such an one hath not eternal life.

My advice to all of you is to never settle for the mediocre. In this life there is the good the better and the best. The best is always worth the struggle. The view is always worth the hike to the top of the mountain! I think many of the "blind" are blind by their own choice. They are not willing to look past the good to see the better, or the better for the best! Seek the Best in all things. Each and every one of us are Children of our Heavenly Father. Children of God. He wants us to have the best and he wants to bless us with it! We are the ones that keep us from the Best things that he has in store for us! Be the Best you!!!!! Just do it!!!!! Do it. Do it right. Do it right now. Don't wait!

 

Here in San Vicente it has been really hot and pretty rough to keep going at times, but when we pushed through we saw really great things happen. Some highlights of the week:

• My bike handle-bars falling off en route to a Cita
• Eating Capitan Triple Alfahors! (look them up)
• Getting chased and bitten by a dog and kicking it in the face half way across the patio.

All in all, a great week!

 

I love you all!

 

Elder Anderson 

Supuestame​​nte el fin del Mundo. No creo. Este año es la empieza bebé!!! Look out world! HERE WE COME!!!!- Jan. 2, 2012

Hey Everyone!!!

It's been a while since I wrote a general email!!! Sorry about that! It's been crazy here in Argentina! The week of Christmas I got transferred! That means I switched areas and companions! Now I am in San Vicente with an Elder named Elder Cayata! He is from Salta Argentina and is a Boss! He is really a great missionary! Doesn't speak a word of English! It is  a serious learning curve for me! Can't resort back to English when I'm tired or just can't think of the word! I've surprised myself though and can communicate pretty darn well. I'm really proud of the progress I've made.
San Vicente is this little town out in the country. There are about twenty square blocks of paved roads and then the dirt roads take over and you get a whole mix of country folk. It is kind of a funky town. There are still alot of ranchers and sheepherders here with their families, but it is also kind of  the cool place to have a summer home if you have a ton of money and live in Buenos Aires. So we'll be biking down a road and see a brick and tin hut with   8 people inside surrounded by cows and horses and then half a block more is literally a mansion with tennis courts and a pool and a BMW in the drive way. It is a town caught between two very different worlds. I really like it though. The Church here is small. About twenty to thirty people come every Sunday, but they love the gospel and have incredible faith. It is cool. We are kinda like pioneers here. We have seen alot of success too. It is really cool to talk to these people that are so humble and just love  to talk about the Gospel because it is all they know. It really is cool.
I've been studying alot of Talks from the General Conference of the church lately and I've realized how amazing it is to have living prophets. It is a concept that is really hard to grasp for some people. We know that we have a Prophet, a man called of God to hold all the priesthood keys to actualize all the ordnances of the gospel here on the earth. A man that talks with God like Abraham or Moses, that gives us guidance  for us, now, today. It is a huge blessing. I love the Scripture in Amos 3:7 that says "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets."  God loves us so much that he is not going to leave us in this world without a guide. Another light in the darkness. God is so merciful to us.

Oh ya! FELIZ NAVIDAD Y AÑO NUEVO!!!!! Christmas here was great! We ate miga and meatballs and Alfahors and Milanesa and Bonbons and then we had Pomelo to "Brindar"! It was great. Honestly didn't feel like Christmas without my family but it was Christmas none the less! The greatest gift I got was to hear my family on Monday and talk to them for about an hour. It was a surreal amazing experience. While serving the mission you try so hard to stay focused on the work and what you are doing , but always in the back of your mind is your family, and the thought that all this is so short and will end and you'll see them soon. It was crazy to talk to them  and be reminded of that all over again. At the end of this month I'll be a fourth of the way through the mission. It is going really fast for me. Not for my dear mother, but for me it is. I loved talking to them and hearing that they are all doing amazing. Each and every one of them are such incredible people and are examples to me in every aspect of my life. It really was amazing talking to them. I pretty much just cried the whole time and everytime I heard the voice of one of my siblings or Mom or Dad it was just a wave of Happiness. I am so blessed to have such an incredible family. That is why, honestly, I am here so far away. Because I can see the blessings in our life from this gospel and I want that so badly for everyone else! I'm willing to give up being with them and talking to them for two years so that someone else can have the same thing I have. IT IS SO WORTH IT!!!! I love you all so much and am so grateful for all you do from me in my life. God  bless you in this new year with all you have planned. Always remember him. He doesn't like getting pushed to the bottom of your priority list!

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas,

Love,
Elder Anderson

Leaving Avellaneda

Holiday Treats

Holiday packages have arrived!

Christmas stockings from the Corneliuses

Festive Christmas tie

Corn nuts "manna from heaven"

Puppy!

Elders riding off into the sunset (who's taking the picture)?

Multitasking-riding and studying Spanish