Overcast.....

So Hey!

Glad to find you all happy and healthy....hopefully! Everybody is winding down with school and sports and everything! Way cool! So strange since right now the kids are all in school and winter is coming on! Blows my simple mind!

This week has been difficult. It all began with my companion Monday trying to run over a dog with his bike and getting bitten. From there we spent the rest of the night in the hospital cleaning him up and getting him meds. Lets just say I was less than happy with that whole experience. Word to the wise, don't try and run over german shepherds with your bike at 8 pm. Does not generally turn out well!!! From there everything seemed to just slowly roll downhill. It might have been the fact that the sun hasn't come out for a week either, but for something I have just felt kinda.....overcast.

We had a really great Dia de Patria or Independence day here though! 25 de Mayo! We got the entire Branch here together and had a pollo asado. Slow cooked over a fire chicken! We cooked nine chickens from 10:30 in the morning until 2:30 in that afternoon. They were AMAZING! That basically made my day and my week! If there is one thing these argentines know how to do, it is cook meat!!!! They are Pros! We enjoyed everyone's company and just had a really good time! I wore a little Argentine flag pin all day and was proud to be semi Argentine. It was fun. Interesting though. Here the Independance day is like nothing. Nobody wears Argentina T-shirts, there was no parade and no fireworks. Kinda lame. But whatever! I ate a pollo asado so I'm happy! Overall the lesson I have learned lately is how to smile even when I'm not happy. Turns out that when I do that my smile turns from something external to something internal. I like what Elder Oaks quotes in his talk on Desires: 


http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/desire?lang=eng&query=desires+(name%3a%22Dallin+H.+Oaks%22)

Many scriptures speak of what we desire in terms of what we seek. “He that seeketh me early shall find me, and shall not be forsaken” (D&C 88:83). “Seek ye earnestly the best gifts” (D&C 46:8). “He that diligently seeketh shall find” (1 Nephi 10:19). “Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (D&C 88:63). I've realized that as I have righteous desires, to be happy, to help someone, to just smile, God helps me out. That when I ask in humble prayer with real desires, I receive what I need, not necisarilly what I want. God is great and Merciful. I know he loves me and you and that we are his children.

I love you all and pray for you often. We'll see from where or with whom I email you next week! Here come changes!


Love,


Elder Anderson