hello everyone! so yup its snowing here in Paonia its actually snowing pretty good, we have about 3 inches on the ground already and it doesn't look like its gonna let up for awhile! so im excited, but anyways the week and everything is going good for us here, i had a few really cool experiences this past week..so i'll tell you about them in a little bit but im gonna respond to your email first. so yes my talk is over! haha and it went really well according to everyone that has told me i did a great job, but also i think i did pretty good. so the baptism is going to go through for sure this Sunday so im way excited about that, we aren't sure what time it will be but it is going to happen.like i said my talk went well so i was relieved after that was over, and for some reason i wasn't as nervous giving that talk as i was when i gave any of my youth talks or my farewell and it was the FIRST talk i had actually prepared all by myself! lol i dont know if its cuz i dont really know the people here so i didn't care waht they thought or if i just feel more comfortable with that kind of stuff. but anyhoo it was good. so last wednesday we had a girl in the ward give us a referral but she didn't know the address and she told us that she would get it to us the next week but anyways that next day Elder Jensen and i were out tracting and we ran into this girl and she was way interested in everything we had to say and she told us that she would come to church in a couple weeks, anyways the cool part is that we went over to Cheryl Duncan (the girl that gave us the referral) and asked if she knew this girl we met cuz the girl knew her and it turns out that it was the same girl that she was going to give us the addresss for, but the night before when we were planning we both felt like we needed to tract that street and so i thought that it was a really neat experience. she is gonna come to church this sunday. So the other really cool experience we had was kind of the same thing but it was a different day and we felt like we needed to go out and tract "J Rd" and so we went out there and remind you this is way out in the country like houses spread out like Sheffield Rd kind of anyways so we were tracting and we were walking from one house to another and there was this car that came up behind us and as it passed us i looked in and it was April Pluss!!! the lady from my first area, ha so she stopped and we talked for a good 20 minutes, i guess she has a place out here on the western slope that she comes to every so often and she was on J Rd cuz that is where she keeps her horses and she was down with them. she still hasn't joined the church cuz of some divorce issues but i thought that maybe that is why we were supposed to go out there and tract.. it was way awesome! she seems to be doing great.so yeah those are some of the pretty cool experiences i had this week. thank you for all the love and support i hope that things continue to go well for everyone. i miss you and love you so so much! thanks again! bye byeLove, Elder Randy Anderson

Family, Hello everyone, i hope that things are going good for you all this week. i am doing pretty good myself besides the fact taht i just found out last night that Elder Jensen and i have to give talks in church THIS sunday! lol the people they were gonna have do it backed out and so they asked us to do it! :( ha the thing that stinks is that we both have to speak for 20 minutes on Following the Brethern! but i dont think i can talk for 20 minutes and not have anyone respond to me, ha so yeah i hope that im able to do it!? i have like 4 days to prepare it haha and it stinks cuz we dont really have the resources like we would back home, so im gonna try and get on lds.org and see what talks i can find.. anyways make sure to keep me in your prayers this week for sure! Last Saturday we were able to set Jenny Ross with a baptismal date of November 1st so that is really exciting.. but it is going to happen so thats awesome! not awhole lot more has been going on this week we had district meeting down in Delta again yesterday and i thought it went really well. we got to do some service for a gentleman yesterday for like 3 hours in the afternoon, we helped him move hay bales and then we helped him move some rail-road tie we've been keepin pretty busy with things trying to make appointments with people and then tracting but i swear we've got this whole town tracted out already! haha but thats all there really is to do, i personally love to give service to people but Elder Jensen isn't too big of a fan of it so like i've said before we have our differences. anyhoo things are going good here in Paonia the weather is cooling off and we were supposed to get snow today but haven't yet so i guess we'll see what happens. its 42 right now. there are so many hunters around town right now from all over the place. its pretty crazy all the gun shots we hear. oh so i bought some eggo's last p-day i haven't had any since before i left home and i was craving them so i went and bought some! ha i forgot how good they are. Transfers this time around are on November 5th, so its comin up pretty soon, only 2 weeks away. i think i'll stay here again but who knows!? well i hope that everyone continues to do well and you aer enjoying the fall, it is beautiful down here this time of year and im sure its the same way up home. thank you for everything that you do! take care and keep in touch please. i love you and miss you all so so much! thanks for everything! bye bye Love, Randy

Is this what the Elders are driving in Paonia?

how is the family doing this week? before you get excited as to how my talk went. haha it didn't.. i got sick sunday morning i woke up at 1:30 or so and had teh worst stomach pains i've ever had and then had to use the restroom a few times but that didn't do anything and then at like 5:30 i puked and then like an hour later i puked again and so Elder Jensen called our Ward Mission Leader and told him that i was sick and we prob wouldn't be able to go. but i wasn't faking it, i hope they still ask us to give a talk at a later time. but it was the worst i've felt out here in the mission field.. it sucks being sick away from home! no one to take care of me! so i laid in bed all day sleeping and then waking up and then i'd take showers adn then sleep and so on and so forth. but anyways i hope i dont have to get sick again. my back and neck were killing me cuz we helped this lady move and then we chopped wood for a good couple hours and it took a toll on me a few days after that. prob the worst my back has been hurtin my whole mission, like i had sharp pains in my lower back.. but its doing better now. Elder jensen isn't feelin too good today so i think he caught whatever it was that i had.. so that is the whole talk thing... but we went to that Western store and i bought myself a new pair of wranglers and i had to upsize from my old wranglers! haha :( so none of the ones i have back home are gonna fit unless i go on a major diet before i get home and loose my legs ha.. but i didn't see any boots there for the winter, so dont worry about it i'll just use my docs. and if i need somthing else i'll find something. it doesn't even get that bad here in the town people say. im glad to hear that things are going good back home.. im doing pretty good out here besides the whole bein sick thing. yesterday we had district meeting down in Delta and then Elder Jensen and i went on team ups with the zone leaders for the day and that was pretty fun just to see how different missionaries work and the way they do things, i can tell they are no more of a missionary than me or anyone else out here, its just a calling they have. but i like our zone leaders and it was good to be with some people that can have fun and have that type of personality.. we had 2 really good apts this past week with our top two investigators and things went really well with them, on one of them we watched Jeffrey R. Hollands talk from confrence and then told him to pray about everything that we've taught him in the past and everything that he's heard and he said that he would, and realized thats why he hadn't gotten an answer yet is cuz he hadn't prayed, the spirit was so strong there. and then our other apt we just answered questions that her and or her mom had it went really well. the mom asked us what we thought her church was (baptist) if we believe that our church is the only true church. and at first both elder jensen and i were like umm.. and so i started talkin bout the priesthood cuz that was here previous question adn then as i was talkin about that, it came to me that i just needed to tell her about the Great Apostasy and how after Christ was killed and his apostles were drivin out of the land that people started takin the gospel and putting there own words into it, so i got distorted and God pulled his Priesthood Authority off the earth and then i told her about the restoration and how it was the FULLNESS of Christ's church. other churches have truths but just not the fullness, and she was oh ok. i thought it was pretty sweet. anyhoo those were prob 2 of the highlights with our investigators this past week. i think we are gonna try and set the one with a date this saturday when we go over there. we actually went over to that families house that has the dairy cow and they had already milked her right when we got there so we just helped them build a pig fence, so dont worry everyone im still building pig fence just not at home, but i think the pigs will get out of this one. haha the guy didn't want it too sturdy. all is well for me here in Paonia, thank you for all the letters you send. I love you all and am grateful for all that you do for me! take care and keep in touch please! miss you and love you!!! Love, Elder Randy Anderson

I hope that things are going well and y'all are staying busy, but not too busy! things have been going good out here in Paonia it was a real busy weekend for us.. but it was one of the best on the mission i think! So we had Zone Confrence on friday and that was up in Grand Junction and we learned about a few cool things and then Saturday and Sunday we had the chance to watch General Confrence and it was amazing! i absolutely love watching General Confrence i can't believe i never really watched it before the mission, i watched all 10 hours of it including the Priesthood session and i agree that there were a few that spoke in that session that were hard to understand! but the messages that they delivered were amazing and it goes to show how important families are and what love means! dang it was a great weekend, i didn't fall asleep once in the whole thing! ha.. i loved M. Russell Ballards talk on father son relationships and i thought it was so ironic cuz the night beforre that confrence i wrote dad a letter and told him how gratefuly i was for him! it was like exactly what i was sayin in the letter. i also loved Jeffery R. Holland's talk on the Book of Mormon, talk about powerful! i've always loved listening to him cuz he says it how it is and doesn't care! so yes it was just a great confrence. oh i also got to meet with President Christison at zone confrence and have an interview with him and that was a great experince also cuz he helps me so much, i went to him with somethings i have been struggling with and he can comfort me. I can really feel the saviors love through him. Oh and zone confrence i got up and bore my testimony. so everyone knows how great of a weekend this past weekend was, well this upcoming isn't gonna be so great! lol i have to give a talk in Sacrament meeting, and y'all know how much i dont like talkin in front of people. but i got most of it done and it's right around 10 minutes and so it will be plent long cuz there are 2 other speakers.. but make sure y'all pray for me.. i've been praying that i can say what Heavenly Father would have me say to touch the hearts of the people listening and for the comfort im gonna need! ha just the other night we went over and visted a family and the husband wasn't feeling well so he asked us to give him a blessing, so i gave him the blessing and it was a spiritual experince and then the next morning he called and told us that he was felling tons better and so he took us to our district meeting in delta. but it was so great to see that he got better.. the people around here are really nice. we have had some really good appointments this past week and i think that two of the people are so so close so hopefully we can see something happen. we do lots of tracting but cuz its such a small area everyone we talk to is like yeah 2 of you guys stopped by like 2 months ago! haha so they hear it quite a bit! for meals we get fed by members of the ward everynight, and it's pretty sweet cuz the family we live with buys all of the food and tells us to eat theirs. so yeah the people here in the ward take care of us, they are so nice im actually gonna go milk a cow at one of the members home this friday! lol im pretty excited. well i got to get goin but i cant wait to hear back from y'all, i hope things continue to go well. thank you for all the letters of love and support! it means so much to me and helps a ton! bye bye.. LOVE YOU ALL!!! MISS YOU!!!Love,Elder Randy Anderson