HOLA!!!!!!

Hey all!

How the heck are ya'll doin?!!!!  Doing great here in San Vicente.  This week I have officially been here 8 months.....that is a lot of time!  I am happy and healthy and loving it though but I think I'll be transferred to another area and companion on Monday!  We'll see!  Part of me wants to go and part of me wants to stay!  Either way I am content.  This last week has been a whirlwind of preparation for going to the Temple open house in Buenos Aires!  We are so excited to go and see everything inside and outside and really feel the spirit there.  It is a deeply spiritual experience being there.  I am so Excited!  WE ARE GOING TODAY!!!!!  Can't wait to write you all next week and tell you how it went. 

This week it rained every single day literally all day.  Actually it has been raining for three weeks non-stop!  It finally stopped and the sun came out yesterday!  Thank goodness!  I wasn't sure how much more I could take!  Today is back to overcast again though.  Que bajon!  Yup, I just talked with you all about the weather. That is a sure sign of no new exciting news. 

We are just working hard and teaching lots and learning lots every dayy.  I think one of the bigger news flashes could be that we have a huge hole in the middle of our bedroom floor that is about a foot deep.  Right through the tile and concrete floor.  That is a story for another day though.  Ask me in a year when I get home.  Don't worry.  Everything is completely under control....at least that is what they tell us. 

We were teaching a lesson this week to one of our favorite investigators. We call her Nona, which means basically Granny in Castellano.  She is a sweet 82 year old women that has been investigating the church for 20 years and is going to get baptized this coming Sunday.  She was praying and said so honestly, "Dear God, thank you for blessing me with a beautiful family that has been so patient with me and helped me arrive to this day that I can be baptized. I've been waiting a long time."  It made me think about the story of the Laborers in the vineyard and the talk by Elder Holland. The story is that a Farmer hired on at the beginning of the day laborers in his vineyard. They took the work which was very difficult to find in that day and worked all the day long for a specific salary. The farmer came back at mid day and hired more workers. Then a third time a few hours later, and then at the last hour came back and hired more on to work. When the day came to a close, all were gathered in and paid the same. The laborers that had worked all the day long got angry with the master of the vineyard for having worked so much more but getting paid the same as the rest. The Elder Holland makes the point clear of this parable. It does not matter the hour at which one arrives to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. All are received and all receive their recompense which is all that the father has. What matters is not the hour or condition in which you arrive, but that you get there and you work your hardest until the end! This sweet 82 year old women matters just as much to God as the new born baby that is born into the gospel. God loves them all. They are all his children and he want all of them to arrive and live with him! Then Elder Holland makes the challenge. Those who have made covenants, keep them. Those who have made covenants and broken them, repent and fix them. And those who have not yet made covenants with God, dig deep, humble yourselves and make them. It does not matter the hour in which you arrive, but it does matter that you arrive in the end! Arrive, and then be firm from that moment on!
I love you all and pray for you and work hard to arrive and be firm. I'm not perfect but I sure do my best and I know that if I stay firm, God will make up the rest.
 
Love,

Elder Cam Anderson 

Por fin!!!!

Hola!

Long time no write! Sorry about that! Not super great of me....but I'm back on track and writing!  As you probably guessed, I am still here in San Vicente. We are working away and just doing great! We are preparing everything for the open house and re-dedication of the Temple of Buenos Aires! I t is amazing and I am soooo excited!  We are going to visit there within the next couple of weeks!  It is gonna be so awesome!  I miss having a temple so close like in Colorado or in Hawaii. A temple is really a huge blessing. 

The last few weeks we have just been working like crazy and couldn't even seem to get ourselves a brake!  We were running from here to there to EVERYWHERE it seemed.  I am exhausted but super happy and content with everything going on.  The lastest and greates would have to be the baptism of our Bicicletero (bike shop owner). He is a great guy and is really converted and living the gospel!  It is amazing to see! 

Some fun things from down here could be getting shot at by a grown man in the middle of nowhere with a pellet gun, or traveling for an hour and a half in pouring rain and HAIL to get to a meeting in the city of Adrogue, or maybe that a lady in our Branch made me a Beenie of the Argentine flag that is 3 feet long, or that me and my companion both got bit by little yippy dogs in the same day or maybe that we ate 24 pastries in one day. To say it shortly, life is beautiful, interesting and full of adventures. Here are a few more fotos to enjoy and I will write you all next week!

I love ya!

Elder Anderson 

Week 52....and I don't know what to write....

Hey all!


Another great week! Some pics just to prove it!
So this week is kind of a big deal! I turn one year old! Instead of counting up, I am counting down! Blows my mind how fast time goes by. I hear about alot of you guys and I see that you are all growing up so fast and changing! Others of you are the exact same! :)
Being a missionary is so awesome! It makes me pretty darn happy. I can't think of anything better I could be doing with my life right now. When you see a family decide to change and be better. All of them all together at the same time, it really touches your heart. Shows that those things called miracles are real.
Some crazy things. I have taught people from every social class, every religion I can think of, every race (minus Indians from India), and even taught, and seen changes in every single one of them. I have seen people give up cigarettes, alcohol, heroin, being a womanizer, and dropping the spanish equivalent of the F bomb to improve their lives. I have blessed a baby and dedicated a grave. I've eaten a little bit of EVERYTHING and have gotten sick from just about everyhting too. Argentina is one crazy place. I really love it though!
I don't really know what to write this week......I'm pretty darn tired and having a hard time thinking.....asi que....no puedo pensar en algo más paraescribirles. Les prometo que la carta de la proxima semana va a ser mejor.....

Les quiero mucho!

Elder Anderson  

[No Subject]

Hey All!

No pictures this week. Sorry. But everything is good here in San Vicente! We are working hard and doing good work here! The highlight has been freezing and below freezing temperatures this week. After not having a winter for a few years that is really nipping me in the bud. I've been thinking alot this week about desires and how inportant it is that our desires be higher and bigger than the simple basic carnal desires. I don't desire to leave every day in the cold and yet I have an overreaching desire to find someone prepared to hear this message and so I leave every morning from the comfort of my home to DO WORK! Our desires are something that we can change. They are a descision. We should control our desires and not be controled by our desires. That is my short inspirational message this week! I love ya'll and am thinking about you! A late but wholehearted birthday shout out to Quinn and Carson and Nathan and Ethan AND Sarah Kruit! You are the best and not forgotten by this Argentine Gringo Missionary!


Love,

Elder Anderson

Short and SWEET

Hey all! 

Don't have much time at all! But I want to tell you that i love you and enjoy the  pictures of some of my favorite Argentines! THey are funny people!

Love,

Elder Anderson 

Rain, rain, humidity, mud

Hola!

Hey all! ¿Que onda? So everything here in Buenos Aires is genial! Elder Phillips and I are doing super well and working hard and seeing alot of mini-miracles. God loves us a whole lot! 

Fun things this week would have to be rain and humidity for 4 days in a row. Always a blast when you bike around in a white shirt. My shirts by the end of the day end up a little less than white. That is for darned sure! We had the opportunity on Sunday to have the confirmation of Rafael. He was so happy and content and just glowed. He has come to know all by himself that all this is true! He has read the Book of Mormon, and meditated, and prayed! And just like is promised, he received an answer to his prayer! Amazing how every time God makes a promise he holds up his end of the deal! 

I've found that conversion is like baking a chocolate cake. There is a specific recipe for making a chocolate cake and there is a specific way to reach conversion. If you follow the recipe for chocolate cookies hoping to have a cake at the end, you are going to be sorely disappointed. Many people try to find out if the Book of Mormon and gospel of Jesus Christ is true but in their own way. The only way to get the desired results is follow the recipe that God has put in place for us. If we don't follow the specific steps of reading, pondering and then praying for a specific answer if it is true, we will not receive a specific answer. We will not receive the chocolate cake! I invite all of you to follow the recipe and find out if these things are true. Every single person who has been truly converted to this church and this gospel has followed this process and received an answer. There is only one way! We cannot worship God in OUR way and get HIS blessings. We must worship him in HIS way to get HIS blessings. The trick is finding out which way is HIS way. I've come to know that THIS way is HIS way through reading, pondering and praying. It is pretty cool! I love being a Mormon! Apart from being true, it is so cool!

I hope you are all happy and healthy! I sure am! Everything here is good and I'm just trucking along. I'm almost a year old this month! So crazy how fast time flies! Makes you learn and grow up fast!

Love,

Elder Anderson   

Yep

Hey All!

Another Great week in San Vicente, Buenos Aires, Argentina!

The highlight was obviously the baptism of our good friend Rafael.  He is an incredible guy and is so spiritually and emotionally prepared and is making big changes in his life. It is interesting. Being a member of this church is not like other organizations. You can't just go and be present and that is ok.  It is not what we do, rather it is who we are.  It is what we do think and desire every minute of every day of ever week of every year of all our life for forever.  To really follow Jesus Christ and not just belive in him is really hard.  It requires me to do things better, to be better, to do more, than I would doing my own thing and running my own program. So to begin to live this gospel and follow Jesus Christ can be hard.  Like his original Apostles, he calls us to leave everything and follow Him.  It seems like alot if we forget all the blessings and benefits of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Really all he is asking us to give up is ignorance, misery, a life without purpose, and in turn he gives us wisdom, joy and a focused direction with goals and help all along the way. Really there is no sacrifice at all! We get paid double!

We've been a little sick from the weird weather here. One day it is freezing cold and the other it is hot enough to leave in short sleeve shirts. Reminds me of the fall in Colorado. Always changing and never what they predict. It makes it fun but all gives everyone a cold. So we were fighting against that all week. But a little cold isn't gonna stop us too much. We worked hard and had some really cool experiences.

Overall feelings of my life right now....content, happy, tired, hungry, and STOKED FOR THE FUTURE! Everything is great even when it is not because tomorrow I get a chance to try it all over again and do better. Lucky for us right?! 
I'm running short on time so I'll leave you all with this note and a bunch of pictures and just tell you all that I love you and pray for you a bunch!

Love,

Elder Anderson 

P.S. Anyone thinking of serving a mission out their with doubts, here is my advice. Do it! You will never regret it! The world stays the same while you are gone. The only thing that changes is you and the change is that you improve drastically! DO IT!!!! IT IS AWESOME!!!!!