Christmas Letter to Missionaries

Dear Friends,

It’s a great time to be a missionary isn’t it! The work of the Lord continues to move forward faster and stronger than eve r, and we are so blessed to be a part of it. My brother in law once taught me a great analogy and I would love to share it with you. As he drove down the Gorge between Washington and Oregon he saw the Columbia River. The wind was blowing very strong and it was blowing the opposite way that the river was flowing, it was causing 5 foot waves pushing up current. Although on the surface it appeared the wind was pushing the water upstream, the great Columbia continued to flow e very strong. He related this to the Lord’s work. Sure at times we run into challenges or have difficult moments when Satan is trying to stop the work of the Lord from moving forward, but it will ALWAYS move forward. He worded it a lot better, but I hope you understand what it means.

It has been or is such a blessing to be a full time missionary I am truly enjoying my service to our Heavenly Father and hope all of you are as well. Enjoy every part of your mission both good and bad. I am grateful to all of you and your examples to me. Don’t get discouraged out here the Lord is on our side and we will win the fight. I know that Jesus Christ lives and speaks with our church leaders to help us know what we need to be doing. Follow their council in all that you do. I know the words they speak are scripture as is the Bible and Book of Mormon, study from them daily and you will be blessed.

I love you all so much and wish you the best this holiday season, and throughout the rest of your mission.

Till we meet again, God Speed!

Love, Elder Randy Anderson

it has really hit me this week knowing how little time i have left, i was reading in the doctrine and covenants the other day and i realized how long i had left and i spaced out thinking about how i'm not ready to go home and how i wish i could continue. then a couple days after that i got a letter from the mission office telling me "now that you only have a couple months left you need to make sure you give it your best and endure to the end, to be an example to younger missionaries" and i had another blue day when i was kind of out of it! it's really weird though because i never thought i'd be to this point, i always heard of missionaries getting there but i always told myself i wouldn't be like that, and here i am feeling those same feelings.

i'm going to miss being a full time missionary being able to forget about myself and solely focus on other people and how i can help them. i love seeing the joy people can recieve in their lives and the awesome friendships i've built out here.


but enough sad stuff, this past week besides all of that was a pretty good week. we are offically our own "unit" down in Parachute, yesterday made it final that the Parachute branch was created. although we will not start meeting 'til the 26th of this month it is a branch and we found out who our branch Presidency is. it was a pretty easy guess though and i had 2 out of the 3 right. i'm really looking forward to it though, and so are most of the members down there. some of them are really sad that they wont be together with the same big group of people as they have been for the past however long they've been a ward together. but it is sweet knowing that the work of the Lord is moving forward! :)

the stake President came up to Elder Castro and i and told us that he is excited about all of the work we have going on down there, i thought that was awesome hearing that from him.

In Rifle every year about this time they have a community Christmas choir event when the choirs from the the Catholic church, Methodist church and the Mormon church all go to one of their buildings and they sing. that was last night and i really enjoyed it, it was held in our church this year and the whole chapel was full and all the way back into the gym. the different choirs got up and sang and then at the end of it all of the congregation got up and sang together, it was really neat to see all of these different faiths together singing and worshipping our Savior Jesus Christ! We had 2 of our investigators show up which was great, our Branch Presidents wife brought them for us because they weren't able to drive themselves so it was a good opportunity for them to fellowship them as well!

Other than that we had an average week, we were able to go tracting, and we taught 17 lessons and we even got to do some service! :) so it was a good week.

i love you all and cant wait to talk to you in 12 days! crazy huh?
love Randy

The new apartment is pretty nice, a smoker lived there before us so it stank like smoke when we first moved in but we have candles going and smell good things plugged into the outlets ha so it's gradually getting better. we got everything moved in Saturday morning, the only thing is we only have 1 chair in the whole apartment so we eat breakfast and lunch sitting on the ground ha but we are hoping to get more chairs sometime this week. I'll have to take pictures of the place and send them to you,

it is pretty nice living in the actual area we work in now because that drive was getting pretty boring everyday twice a day and it was a waste of time. the members down there are excited that we got a place down there because the branch is coming soon! :) this upcoming Sunday (moms 50th ha) the stake President is going to announce the new boundries and the ward split and present the callings to the congregation and on the 26th of December we will have our first meeting down there! :) i'm really excited and looking forward to it, i think with the branch opening up down there it will get a lot of the in-actives coming out again because they cant use the excuse that it is too far to drive. something else that is pretty neat is the day the branch opens will be exactly 2 years after i took my endowment out!

this past sunday Pauline and Brittany came to church and brought Brittany's boyfriend! my comp and i were so excited when we saw there car pull up! it was fast and testimony meeting also so it was great for them to hear so many testimonies, the spirit was so strong there! i even got up and bore my testimony! :) but afterwards i asked pauline what she thought of church and she said it was different than any other church she had been to and i asked what she meant and she said it was peaceful and she felt calm and happy! i was like that's the spirit you felt here today, and read with her the scripture in Galatians 5:22 talkinbout the fruits of the spirit. then we took them on a church tour and showed them all the paintings and explained them and showed them the baptismal font. and when we were at the font the daughter and boyfriend were like what is this and so we said this is the baptismal font and Pauline (the mom) said just like Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist and we were like exactly! ha the only way of baptism is the baptism by emersion by someone holding the Priesthood authority of God. and we have an appointment with them this week and we are going to try and set them with a baptismal date! :)

it was a great day yesterday! :) then last night my companion and i were able to give to Priesthood blessings to a part member family. we gave the blessings to the husband who is not a member and his mother, i know that their hearts will be softened from the experience they will have by witnessing the power of God.

i haven't put my bike on craigs list because i think i'm just going to sell it to Elder Castro. it will be lots easier and i wont have to worry about it. we are heading up to Glenwood today to go get some exercise so that's what we have planned today.

i hope everyones week goes great! i miss you so much! thank you for all the support and letters you send to me! i love you! :)
love Randy

This past week has flown by but at the same time it has gone by kind of slow. so how is everyone doing? i hope that work,school, and everything else is going well for y'all. things are going great for me out here, this winter weather and long nights make me really tired all the time. i agree about being used to having pdays on wednesdays and having to adjust to monday, i'm not so sure if i like it or not.

i think later today we are going to go up to Glenwood and play basketball and football. we were originally planning on moving out today into our other place but yesterday we had ward council and my comp was the one that was in the meeting and he didn't get everything organized with the ward so it will probably be later this week sometime. he was the one in there because we were on team ups temporarily so all 4 of us wouldn't have to be in the same meeting, only one from each area.

i do have my new address so you can start sending stuff to that address, because we have the keys to the place and have been taking a few things with us every time we go down there. the address is

854 W. Battlment Parkway L-101
Parachute, Co 81635

this past week was kind of a slow one for work because most of the families we are working with were out of town for the holiday, but we were still able to teach a of couple people. so last monday night we left here in Rifle at about 6:30 and headed up to Frisco, the roads were good most of the way except for Vail pass which is at 10,680 ft so you could imagine it getting snow. but we made it to the cabin safely and spent the night there. it was such a beautiful cabin i loved it! they had 10 sleds just sitting outside so of course i had to go and start one up and smell the beautiful smell of snowmobiles! ha i wanted to ride it so bad but we didn't asked the member that owned them so i decided it wouldn't be smart!

tomorrow we have a miniture zone confrence here in Rifle and also interviews, so it will be good to talk with President Maynes and have him help me out on how i can be a better trainer. It's crazy for me to think that this will be my 2nd to last zone confrence.

so when we were up at that leadership training it hit me for the first time that i'm really going to miss being a missionary, i was talking with Elder Allred and he brought up how much time i had left and the fact that i was the oldest missionary there and it really hit me then how close it is to me going home, i'm excited to see all of you but i like doing what i'm doing.

So yesterday during sacrament a young man from the ward gave his farewell talk and it was on how he prepared for a mission. towards the end of his talk he said how he knows it will be hard at first but he hopes to be a great missionary like Elder Anderson. lol i thought to myself what the crap, no way you dont want to be like me ha. but he was being serious and he talked about me for like 30 seconds ha. although i dont think i'm that great of an example i think it's really neat that he thinks that of me.

Saturday night we had a lesson with the Trujillo's which is a part member family and the spirit was so strong there i invited him to pray to know if the things we teach are true and after that invited him to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God and he said that he would if he recieved an answer! it was awesome, but the thing is getting him and everyone else to actually pray. because i know that if anyone takes the promise found in Moroni 10:3-5 seriously then they will recieve an answer.

we had a great Thanksgiving, we were able to play football for a couple of hours in the morning and then we went and had two meals! i felt so fat afterwards, well i was so fat afterwards!

i hope that everything is going well for all of you and you have a great week! happy early birthday Aunt Janet, you're getting old! haha and mom you're gonna be .... i dont even wanna say! lol miss you and love you all so much! cant wait to hear back. Christmas is just around the corner and that means i get to call home! :)
love Randy

My new comp is Elder Castro and he is from LA California. He's 21 as well and excited to be on his mission. it has been great serving with him so far, he is really quite when we are in appointments so i do most of the talking ha but i totally understand because that's exactly how i was earlier on in my mission.

I still pray that i'll be able to do a good job while i train him because i'm really nervous and dont want to mess his mission up. it is really a humbling experience helping him because as i teach him how the mission is, i see the things that i need to work on myself. i'll take a picture of us and send it to you as soon as i get a picture and get that other sd card back.

well i've been told that they found us a place to live down in Parachute so that will be cool i guess, i was kind of hoping that we'd be able to stay up here in Rifle since they only have 4 of us in the duplex now. we are going down there later today to get our keys and all the info. so if you have things you were planning on sending between now and next monday go ahead and send it to the 695 McCarron Ct and i'll get it from there 'til i get you my new address.

so tomorrow we have a leadership training up in Frisco at 9. We were originally planning on leaving early ealry tomorrow morning but since it is snowing now we are going to head up there tonight around 6 and stay in a cabin that a member owns up there. my comp will be on team ups with another missionary 'til i get back. and i'm the one that gets to drive our group up to Frisco so it will be awesome driving in the snow and staying in a cabin tonight! :) i'm so excited!!!

we didn't have any of our investigators show up to church yesterday because of the snow, if they really wanted to they would have made it but i think satan just gave them ideas not to go.

so i heard another story of when the branch is supposed to open, either the very first sunday in the new year or the last one in december because they are wanting to have the last Chirstmas service be together.

we have been seeing progress in those that we are working with and that always makes it worth it. anyone who will listen and ask with a sincere heart will progress in my opinion, i've loved seeing the blessings and progress that people can make and recieve as they apply the teachings of the Gospel into their lives. i hope y'all are being missionaries in your own way. it's our privilige to share with others those blessings we have and can recieve from living the teachings of the Gospel.

ok so last wednesday we went up to eagle to drop off my companion and then i was on team ups with another missionary for that day 'til i got my companion the next day and he had been having stomach pains all that night before and throughout the whole day on wednesday, so we got back into Glenwood Springs and we were just resting at their apartment and i was like we should call someone to see whats up. so i called Sister Larsen and asked her what the symptoms of having an appendicites and she was telling us what they were and it was the same things he was feeling so we got permission from Sister Maynes or mission President's wife and i took him to the hospital and they put him through a CT to see if it really was or if it was something else and sure enough he had one. we went to the hostpital at 1:30 and he didn't go into surgery until 6.

Sister Larsen works at the hospital so she came down and spent a lot of time with us making sure he was alright and she had brother Larsen come into the hospital to help me give him a Priesthood blessing before he went into surgery. then i went on team ups with Brother Larsen for like 2 hours while he was in surgery and recovery and the Glenwood Elders went to the hostpital and waited for him to come out.

so because he had surgery he had to spend the night in the hospital and so i was privileged to stay with him! ha it was awesome though because before brother Larsen and i went back they took me to wal-mart and got us stuff we needed like showering stuff and then they bought me dinner to take back with me. they spoiled us like crazy and i'm so grateful for them and all the help they gave us. The Glenwood hospital is probably the nicest hospital i've ever been in, it is so fancy and the rooms are awesome! i was hoping we could have stayed another night ha. but he is doing great now and is out doing work. it was lots better than i can describe. ha

Oh this Thursday is our pday this week because of thanksgiving and we have 2 dinners lined up! maybe we'll get another one we'll see.

Happy early Thanksgiving, i hope y'all have a great week together! think of me! ha all is well with me down this way and i cant wait to hear back from you. i miss you and love you!

love Randy

Another snowing day here in Colorado, the time is getting closer and closer to the BIG day! lol i cant believe how fast time is going by. so i just found out on monday starting this next week our pdays will be on monday from now on, so email ethier sunday or monday morning. Our mission President said that the missionary department of the church encourages it and so that is what he is wanting to do, i was kind of bummed about the whole deal but whatever i only have to email 12 more times! ha

so with pday being on monday it is changing a couple things up at least i have heard we will learn more about it for sure this upcoming tuesday at a leadership training. but i was told that with pday being monday, transfers will be on tuesdays and we will go home on wednesdays not fridays, so if that's right i'll be home the 9th of Feb. not the 11th. which means it's exactly 12 weeks away from today. 84 days! haha so crazy.

anyways so yeah i also recieved a call monday night from President Maynes and he called me to train a new missionary, which should be a really exciting thing but i'm not too excited for it! ha i'm actually kind of nervous. i think it will be a real humbling experience, because how i train will be a foundation for the rest of his mission and i dont want to mess it up! that's why i never wanted to train. but come what may and love it. right!? ha

i believe i am staying as district leader but i wont find out for sure until tomorrow.

another rumor floating around is that the Parachute branch will open up on moms BIG BDAY! lol so i hope that goes through, at the same time i'm sure the missionaries will be doing lots of assignments or giving talks to start off if we dont have a ton of people!

my comp took off today and is on his way back to Denver and he flies out on friday. the work in the Parachute area continues to move forward and i hope that it wont slow down.

we had a brother come to church on sunday that hasn't been to church in over 3 years since his little girl was blessed, it was so awesome to see him come because we have been working with him for so long! i think re-activating members is so awesome! rekindling that spark that they once had. so this next 6 weeks i have a lot to look forward to! i also call home this transfer, isn't that weird? time just flies by too fast.

i hope all is well and y'all have a great week! :) miss you so much and love you!! you could call the mission office to confirm that whole leaving 2 days early thing if you want.

love Randy

One year older and WISER TOO! lol NOT!! i had a great birthday though, thank you so much for all the gifts and birthday wishes, it was a great day. i woke up and opened the gifts and then had a normal morning. then for lunch we all (the 6 of us) went to a place called rib city (really good bbq) then we went out to Parachute and worked until 5 then we headed back to Rifle because the Larsen family came down from Glenwood and took us out to dinner.

it was awesome being able to see them and we had a good dinner, then after that there was a FHE activity at the church for our investigators or families that we are working with to go to and so we did that from 7-8 or so then i went and bought some IBC ROOTbeer and went back to the place! ha i really loved all the things you sent me, and the cards were great! the only thing that could have made it better was if i was able to see all of you! karie sent me a cd with pictures and videos of Raegan and that got me really trunky, probably the best gift! ha not that i didn't like any of the others because i really love them!

sounds like the football team is rolling right along, so this past week was the first round of playoffs and this upcoming week is the quater finals, is that right? i hope i hear from kraymer and kade about the games. i heard from them a few weeks back and didn't write them back yet, sorry guys. ha but they seem to be doing good. so continue to kick butt guys! bring home the gold!!!

well the work is starting to pick up in Parachute and we have some good things going. we finished last week with 19 lessons taught to investigators and/or less active members. and we have a great start to this week so far. this past sunday we had 2 investigators come to church, it was awesome seeing them there. we also got 4 new investigators throughout the week, which is really exciting for being down there, but what i love is how humble most of the people are.

the Hurley family came to church this past sunday as well, we have been working with them trying to get them out and they made it! :) then they also came to the FHE activity on monday night, and then last night we had dinner at their house and we had navajo tacos but these weren't knock off's these were the real deal! ha because they are native americans! Sister Hurley is going to have her baby anytime this week, which will be the 9th one!

they found a place to rent to start the branch up, i heard that they are going to rent out part of the senior center which is kind of weird but hey they have so much space they're not using right now that they wanted to rent it out so my guess is before Chirstmas we will be going to church down there in Parachute with our own branch.

i gave up on looking for a place to live down there because i figured it's better to teach people then look for a place to live so i'm sure when the Lord is ready he'll find something that is available to us. transfers are next week, so next time i email i'll let you know if i'll still be in Parachute or not, my guess is that i will be!

but the Lord's work continues to move forward and i'm happy so all is well!

i need to write some thank you letters for the things i recieved for my birthday and i also need to write y'all back. i think it's like 93 days or something i cant remember but it continues to fly by. i love you all so much! thanks for all you do.

love Randy

so this past week was a great week. Saturday we had our trunk-or-treat thing and we had so many non members and less actives show up! it is good to have those ward activities like that, we also had a few non members come out and play flag football with us. it was awesome! thank you for sending my cleats i forgot how amazing i was! lol NOT!!!

but at the trunk or treat thing we all dressed up in old school suit coats and then we decorated our trunk, it was really fun i liked this Halloween a lot better than last years. i took pictures so you can see when i send this sd card home.

yesterday we had an appt with an inactive couple and he is an RM, well we were there talking and i asked him where he served and he said that he served in Washington DC and i knew his age and figured it was about the same time that Reese served so i was like did you by chance know an Elder Edler and he was like ya i guess they didn't serve together but lived in the same apartment! at first i was like does this guy really know him or is he just saying this ya know? and then he was like yeah he would always talk about tractors and fields and i started laughing and said YOU DO KNOW HIM!!! so tell Reese that Elder Shaefermyer (sp) says hi! it's sad that a returned missionary has gone completely in-active, i hate seeing people do that.

right after that appt we had another one with the Hurley family and they are in-active as well. they are native american and have 8 almost 9 kids, she is due on the 8th! :) but anyways we had an awesome lesson the spirit was so strong and the dad totally took charge and was saying what they need to work on as a family and how they need to re-dedicate themselves. it was probably the most spiritual lesson i had in this area. they have a few kids that haven't been baptized so we are trying to work with the dad so that he will be able to baptize them. as soon as my comp and i got in the car we were yelling and saying that was so awesome! this is why i love the mission so much, because i can see the change that the Gospel can bring to people in their lives if they let it.

we have had a few appts that were just spanish speaking and i feel like i do nothing in those because i dont! haha i just sit there and try to stay awake, i was going to try and learn spanish but i gave up on that quick! ha i need to get going though cuz my time is up!

i cant wait to get my package and the letters from y'all! keep strong at studying and saying your prayers! i love you and miss you!

love Randy

Well another week has gone by and it's been awhile since i emailed last, but it still feels like it was only a week. this past week was awesome with the different confrences & meetings we had.

Tuesday we were able to go up to Frisco for a leadership training and i really enjoyed the confrence he trainned on how it important or crucial it is to have the spirit with us as we teach. it went from 9 to 2 so it was pretty lengthy but it was well worth going, having the opportunity to be trained by a member of the seventy. it was funny on the way up there we left at about 6:30 that morning and we met up with some other Elders in Glenwood so our companions could go on team ups while we were gone and so there were 5 of us in some sort of leader ship in the car and Elder Christensen was driving (he's the one from Walla Walla) and we figured we were going to be late and he did not want to speed so we pulled over and i jumped in the drivers seat and we were making good time until we came up behind a cop and so i didn't want to pass him speeding so i just stayed behind him and he was going faster than the speed limit as much as 15 mph above it so i just stayed behind up until about 5 miles out from Frisco he turns his lights on pulls over to the side of the road and so i go around him and then he turns his lights off and gets in right behind me and followed us the rest of the way 'til we exited of at Frisco! haha it was so scary i thought for sure i was going to get pulled over or get my first ticket! then on the way home that night we stopped by and had dinner at the Larsens in Glenwood, it was so awesome to see them again! i miss going over to there place and visiting with them.

Anyways then the next day we went to Grand Junction for our Zone Confrence and we were trainned by him again, so i got to spend 2 days being instructed by a General Authority it was really neat! i was able to jot down lots of notes and things on how to help me become a better missionary.

we're still working with trying to figure out who everyone is in Parachute and it really suprises me how many members there are down there. there are 124 house holds in Parachute that are on the ward roster but i dont even think 1/4 of them are active! i've noticed that there are lots of part member famlies, so that is a big focus we are tyring to make right now. but just think if on average those 124 house holds had 2 people in them that would be 248 people, that is plenty to make a ward! not only a branch but a full ward! we have been able to meet with lots of them throughout the past week and we are hoping that our next appt's will go through. Parachute is where lots of the workers that work in the oil/gas fields live and within the past year or so more than half the town has moved out because the work slowed down with some new deal they did in the government is what i heard. it's crazy walking or driving through town and seeing so may empty trailers and homes it looks like it should be on a movie or something.

i think once the branch opens we will see lots more of these families become active because they wont have to drive 20 minutes to get to church. i was talking with the stake President the other day and he said it probably wont be open for the next couple months at least that's what they're hoping for. i really hope i'll be here to see it open!

i need to get going, the other Elders are ready to leave and we are going to grab some lunch. i hope to hear from everyone again soo! i'm trying to write y'all back as i get the time i'm writng little by little so i'll send those out when i finish. i hope you got the sd card or you should be getting it soon, it's nothing special. i miss you and love you!
love Randy








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It seems weird to be emailing on Monday, i'm just so used to Wednesday and it being the mid week kind of spliting the week in half but i guess it's nice since i just heard from you 5 days ago, what stinks is that this upcoming week will be a week and a half before i hear from you or am able to email back. so real quick before i forget i have been meaning to tell you for the past 4 weeks, but i chipped my tooth!ha it's nothing huge but chipped my front big tooth. when i was back in Glenwood we would go run on the track at the high school in the mornings and i was pumping up my football to carry as i ran and the needle broke off in the ball so i tried pulling it out and couldn't get it so i tried using my teeth and the dang thing chipped my tooth! i was so mad because i always remember you saying "dont use your teeth to open that, you'll chip them or break them" and sure enough it happened! once again i should of listened to my parents. ha

We still haven't found a place to live closer to Parachute, we're still trying to find something but i think the mission office kind of gave up and put it in our hands. so in my opinion we'll probably be staying here in Rifle 'til at least this next transfer, we are going to get some dressers from the members of the ward so we dont have to keep living out of the suit cases! we could stay in an apartment but the church is not wanting to make a 6 month lease they only want like a month or 2 month lease so not many people are wanting to do that, and the ones that are will charge way more than they want to pay for...

we're still not sure when they plan on opening the branch up, i guess the building that they were going to rent fell through so they are still looking for a place to meet. there is so many different stories going around saying it will open in mid November and others say not till early next year, so i guess we'll wait and see what happens. but it will be really cool knowing that at some point it will become a ward and like you said to know that i was one of the first missionaries to be there when it started. we have been able to contact a bunch of people this past week,

we weren't able to meet with Erik on Friday so we re-scheduled with an appt on tuesday. We talk 3 different lessons to our spanish investigators and i just sat there the whole time! lol my comp taught the whole time and i tried not to fall asleep! ha it is so weird being in a spanglish companionship, i could understand the gist of what they were saying but couldn't participate, so i think i'm giong to try and learn some spanish so i will be able to communicate or help at least some! i got 4 months so i might give it a shot.ha

we had 1 investigator to church this past sunday so that was nice. i'm really looking forward to this week, tomorrow we have that leadership trainining and then wednesday we have zone confrence so it will be good! and that's when i'll talk to President Maynes about the whole schooling thing.

the ward members here in the Rifle 1st ward are on top of missionary work it is so great! i think this ward has been the best one i've been in so far when it comes to member missionary work. not that the other wards i've been in weren't but they are great here! i have a good feeling that we will see lots of success here within the next few months! it still never ceases to amaze me how fast time goes by! i wish it would slow down some!

i cant wait to hear from you again even though it will be like 10 days, i hope all goes well with everyone between now and then. i look forward to getting a letter from EVERYONE soon! miss you so much! love you!!!

love Randy

It's Offical!

We received a letter from the mission office informing us that Elder Anderson's release date is February 11, 2011. More details will come about a month before his release date.

So as for my week, it has been pretty crazy. to start off i really miss Glenwood Springs and wish that i would have been able to stay there at least one more, i've been able to stay in touch with the Larsens and we went down to Glenwood yesterday for district meeting and i stopped and talked with Brother Larsen for a little while, it was weird being in Glenwood but not serving there ya know? i hope we'll be able to go through there when we come back through next year, i've told everyone that i am so i gotta keep my word! ha as Sister Larsen told you i got transferred into an area called Parachute, which is just down I-70 about 45 miles from Glenwood so it's not too bad.

i have only been able to work in the area for 3 days so far this transfer but we were able to teach a 14 year old boy named Erik and we invited him to be baptized, he has to talk with his parents to figure out a date that we can do it but they have given him permission to do it so we are way excited! his fellowship family is doing a great job, he is bestfriends with their boy. there is so much work that is going to be going on down there i am really looking forward to serving there.

the church is really making a push to do work with less active, inactive, and part member families so that is what we are going to be focusing on. we dont keep track of hours tracted anymore and when we teach lessons to active members they dont count as our numbers we report.

i have so much to say and i'm so scatter brained right now i apologize if none of this makes since. so my new companion is Elder Alcocer, he is from Midland, Texas which is where Nate Eppich is serving right now! But he goes home this transfer so i'm "killing" my 4th missionary, he is a spanish speaking missionary so we are a spanglish companionship. i'm the district leader in the district and have driving privileges so i'm happy because i hate not driving.

so the church is planning on opening up a branch in Parachute within the next few months, which is really exciting. it kind of gives us the motivation we need to get the work going so they can do that. but that's why they brought missionaries into this area is to get it going before the branch opens. right now the members that live in Parachute go to the Rifle 1st ward which is 15 miles away and that is actually where we are living now with 4 other missionaries! so everday we have to drive 30 miles round trip to just work in our area. they haven't found a place for us to live down there yet and have kind of left us on our own to find a place then they will pay for. i cant even un-pack my stuff, i'm literally living out of my suitcases and then i'm sleeping on the couch and my comp is on the ground with a matress! so that address you got of mine is just temporarily hopefully but i'll let you know if it changes, i look forward to getting mail from everyone.

i'm looking forward to serving here and i would imagine that this will be my last area, overall the people out this way are lots more humble then those in Glenwood. this next week our pday will be on monday so make sure to email me sunday night or monday, it's this way because Elder Richards of the Seventy is coming into our mission and we are having zone confrence with him on wednesday. i'm looking forward to meeting him and being trainned by him. tuesday the district leaders and zone leaders get to drive to frisco to be trainned by him in a leadership meeting so it will be more of a personal type basis. then on the way back from that we are going to stop and have dinner at the Larsens in Glenwood springs so i'm excited for that as well. i miss you and love you all so much, please continue to pray for me and pray that we'll find somewhere to live! ha i hope to hear back from you soon. tell everyone hello! thanks for all you do! :)
love Randy

Transferred to Parachute, Colorado!

Elder Anderson has been transferred to Parachute, Colorado without an address yet, as they are opening the area and do not even have a place to live! They will be staying with the Rifle,Colorado Elders until they find a place in Parachute.

Well i'm getting transferred! :( i honestly think this is the most upset/bummed/frustrated i've been in all of my transfers so far! i really wanted to stay here in this area for awhile longer but i guess it goes to show it's not my will but the Fathers. i must be needed somewhere else, i just hope that my next area has members are great as this area... so last night around 8:30 i got a call from President Maynes and he told me and i was like you're kidding, and he was like nope we need you some where else and i was like well that sucks! ha and he said that my new area will be just as awesome as this one, (cant wait to see what he means) but then he called me to be a district leader again. ha totally not excited for that ethier! but come what may and love it! right?? so make sure to keep me in your prayers that i'll be positive and have a good attitude towards this please. all night last night when i was packing i was so frustrated i just wanted to go nuts, i dont know why but i guess it's because i have come to love the people in this area and i see lots of potential in this area. but on a brighter note i absolutely loved General Confrence, i think it was up there as one of my favorites on my mission, i know i've only had four so technically they're all up there lol but still this was the top 1 or 2. especially the priesthood session it was amazing. like you mentioned mom every talk given was great, i loved Elder Hollands talk about sacrifice from his parents for him to go out on his mission, that one really hit home for me because i know that my parents are doing the same thing, i'm so grateful for you and everything that you do for me and for the family. you've always put us first and worried about you after us, which is amazing i hope to do the same for my kids someday (if i ever have any ha).. i also loved Elder Larry R. Lawrence's talk, i think it was his he talked about parenting as well. i cant for the Ensign to come out so i can read it and catch some of the stuff i missed while watching confrence. i had a blast though, we went out to the Larsens home and watched it we got spoiled while we were out there. Sister Larsen made tons of snacks so we could munch during confrence and then made a meal in between every session! ha i love that family and am going to miss them a bunch! Saturday afternoon between sessions we went down on the river right next to their house and fished then went back up and watched the afternoon session. for priesthood we rode up with brother Larsen to Aspen but we went a little early and a few brethern from the ward met us up there and we had dinner at a bbq joint up there. so i had a awesome weekend, one that will be hard to beat! ha crazy to think that next confrence we'll be watching it together in the same place, not just watching it together many miles away! :) we weren't able to meet with any of our investigators this week, so i hope that Elder Crunkleton will be able to keep the ball rolling here in this area or get the ball rolling i guess.i feel bad because this is my first area that i've been in that i haven't been able to see someone be baptized, and i know it's not all about baptizing but bringing people closer to Christ and i feel like i have done that with the people that we have worked with so i guess i can say that i've accomplished my purpose. i definitely want to come back through Glenwood with you mom and dad so you can meet the people here and see how gorgeous the area is! Elder Richards of the Seventy is coming through our mission sometime this month so it will be good to hear from him.

love Randy

Hello family,

sounds like the weather up your way is similar to the weather we are having here. this whole past week has been really hot and sunny, although it still gets kind of chilly in the late nights and early mornings.

This weekend is General Confrence! i'm so excited for it! :) our church building is still being worked on and the satelite feed in the building is still being worked on so it wont be ready for this weekend, so instead of watching it at the church we are going to go out to the Larsen's home and watch it which is way cool because i love that family! they remind me a lot of our family. they have a son out on his mission in Guatamala. so i think G.C. will be the high light of this up coming week for me!

last night we met with Bishop Warren and our Ward Mission Leader to try and figure out what the missionary efforts are in the ward, and how we can better help the ward and how the ward can better help us. i thought it went really well, and Bishop said he was glad to have us in his ward and hopes that we stay another transfer. which reminds me that next week is transfers holy cow! next week when i email i'll know if i'm leaving or staying, any guesses from y'all? my guess is that we both stay, or i stay and my comp leaves.

well i started the Doctrine and Covenants countdown on Monday and i just read section 136 today so i think you know what that means? ha that's how many days i have left! so crazy!!! monday we went on team up's, i stayed in Glenwood and my comp went to Eagle and the Eagle Elders did the same one came here and the other stayed there. but i went with Elder Graff who is actually from Richland ha, there are 4 missionaries out of the 10 in our district that are from Eastern Washington, Royal City, Richland, Me, and Walla Walla! but anyways i was with him and he is a spanish speaking missionary (he's white, but called spanish) lol and it was cool being able to tract with him and listen to him talk such great spanish with the people like he's being doing it forever. i could understand just a couple things that he was saying like certain words.

we were able to meet with David (who i mentioned last week) and we were able to teach his girlfriend and it was a combination of spanish and english, it was the first lesson i had taught that way. it was a neat experience, because even when i wasn't talking i could still feel the spirit while Elder Graff was talking in spanish.

On Saturday we helped Jeff move one of his friends, i really see great potenial with Jeff, it might not be right away but i know something will happen down the road.

we're hoping to get a group of missionaries together today to go play football and or soccer so i hope it works out because i want to get some exersice.

i cannot believe that September is over in 2 days! i'm going to be 21 in 40 days! holy moly that is weird! ha


thanks for the email! :) i love hearing from everyone! have a great week and give Raegan a hug & kiss for me! :) ha i miss you and love you so much! let me know if i can do anything for you. make sure to watch General Confrence.
love Randy

Well hello there! :) how is everyone doing this week?

What has the weather been like up your way? it has been nice down here for the most part but 2 days ago and then today it has been raining so it kind of sucks. but luckily we have lots of apartments around here so we try to save those for the raining days, so that way we dont have to be out in the rain all day we can just go knock on doors in the apartment complex's. we actually had a really good day tracting on monday and we had a couple people set up return appointments, whether or not they go through i dont know but i guess we'll find out.

On Saturday we had a guy call us saying that he wanted to meet with us, so we finally got over to his place last night and he is a member but he is in-active. anyways we went over there and he was telling us his story and i guess he is originally from Honduras and was baptized down there back in 2006 and moved here in 2007, well i asked him if he knew an Elder Lee because that's where Tony Lee served his mission and he said that he did know him, he wasn't the missionary that taught him but he was in a bodering city. i thought that was way crazy! ha this guy is only 20 years old and he was telling us how he feels like since he has been away from the church he cant feel the Spirit with him like he used to be able to and he recognized that he needs to come back to church and he wants us to help him with that. i thought it was really neat that someone like him knows what he needs to do and actually wants to do it, so we are going to go over there weekly and have lessons with him.

we had interviews last Thursday over in Rifle, and it actually wasn't Zone Confrence it was just interviews because they are only going to have Zone Confrence every 3 months and we had it last transfer so we wont have another one 'til October sometime, but interviews went really well. President Maynes is a great guy and i had a good time being able to talk with him. He just asked how the work was going and how i liked the area, i told him that the work was going but it was a little slow and that i loved the area and the members so i pray that i'll be able to stay here at least one more if not 3 more ('til i'm done) ha but we'll see i guess.

This past Sunday was Stake Confrence for us but it wasn't a normal one it was broadcasted from Salt Lake and it went to all the stakes in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana so it was pretty big i think they said it was 57 stakes. but it was really good i loved it, we got to hear from Elder Hallstrum of the Presidency of the Seventy and then Sister Cook from the Young Womens Presidency and then Elder Perry and President Uctdorf! talk about a great confrence huh!? ha President Uctdorf focused on 3 things and they were 1) Hold a current temple recommend, 2) Study the Scriptures, and 3) Pray to our Heavenly Father and when you think about it those are 3 very basic things but he felt that it was something we needed to hear. So make sure y'all are doing those things.

He also made a joke that i thought was funny talking about how lots of the youth wear CTR rings and it stands for Choose the Right, he said it can also stand for Current Temple Recommend! ha i'm really looking forward to watching General Confrence to be able to hear from all of those that have been called of God to lead us, i hope that everyone (including those of you that read my blog) will be able to watch at least a part of Confrence and hear what these men have to say. i know that they are called of God and that we can find out for ourselves through prayer!

i hope the rest of your week goes well, i miss you and love you!!! cant wait to hear back.
love Randy

Hello family! :)

Well tomorrow we have interviews with President Maynes over in Rifle, it's about the same distance as home to Pasco. but i am excited for them because i felt like i haven't really got to know him as well as i knew President Christison, maybe it's because we only have zone confrence once every 3 months instead of once every 6 weeks but i'm looking forward to it. i haven't had the chance to ask him about going to Denver,

did i tell you that Mike recieved his endowments already? i'm so happy for him, he told me that he would let me know when him and Sister Benton get sealed and i hope to go to that! i also want to talk to him and see if i can stay in this area 'til i finish my mission, but at the same time i would like to go back to Paonia and serve there again so i guess we will see.

there are a couple families here in this ward that i really love, they are so great to us and are always willing to help us out. i feel like i am starting to get the relationship i need with the members to be a good missionary. if that makes since? i think with what the First Presidency is wanting to do with keeping missionaries in areas longer will be a great thing, because when missionaries are only in areas for 6 weeks or 3 months and then they leave you cant really get as much done as your could if you were there longer and were able to build those relationships with the people in the area.

this week is stake confrence for us and so that will be excting, then 2 weeks after that it is General Confrence! :) i cant wait!

this past sunday we got a new Ward Mission Leader in our ward and he is a really out going guy so it will be good for the work here i think, we just have to help get him familiar with everything and he'll be great!

we have an appt tomorrow night with Shawn over at the Haskells home and Sister Haskell, his fellow shipper asked us to share a lesson on families, she thought that would be a good one for him. and if that isn't one of my favorite thigns to talk about i dont know what is! so i'm looking forward to that.

i have been reading through the Book of Mormon and have really been enjoying it, i'm trying to go through it all the way for the 3rd time out here and i am finally starting to understand lots of it and can relate it to my life and the peoples lives i come in contact with, i'm so grateful for the scriptures and the chance that we have to study them! the Lord has blessed us so much with words from his Prophets both modern and old.

i am getting ready to start my Doctrine and Covenants countdown which is you start from the back of the Doctrine and Coventants when you have 138 days left on your mission and you read 1 section each day all the way 'til you get home and you finish up on section 1! :) i dont start 'til the twins birthday (the 26th) but i'm looking forward to reading it!

we were able to meet up with Jeff yesterday and had a really good meeting with him, i think it was Elder Crunkletons first time meeting him because he had been out of town for the past couple weeks, so it was good.


well i need to get going i think we are going to head back up to hanging lakes this week, the place i took lots of pictures at. so that should be a good hike and make for a fun pday! other than that not much has happened, thank you again for the pictures and letters! well i miss you very much and love you even much more! ha have a great week
love Randy

ps- transfers are october 7th, then november 17th, then december 30th, then feb 10th (day before i get home!) :)

Another week closer... ha 'til my birthday, 'til i call home, 'til i get home! lol i really cant believe how fast time goes by, it seems like it was just 2 days ago that i emailed home but it's been a full week already! and i'm not getting trunky that's not why i was saying all of that but i am excited! :)

ha so it sounds like y'all are staying really busy and have been doing lots. we have been staying busy with the ward list and teaching people, with some tracting in between. we have really narrowed down the number of people on the list, i think when we started it we were over 300 and we've knocked out just over 100 so we're still pushing along. we checked up on this one lady that is less active and the spanish Elders tracted into her about a month ago and she told them that she wanted nothing to do with the church anymore but earlier this week i felt like we needed to go over there ourselves (english Elders) and talk with her to see what's up, so we went over and she invited us in and was really nice, i told her how we are asked by the first presidency to teach 20 lessons a week and i asked if we could come by and share the lessons with her maybe every other week and she said that would be great. We were pretty excited because we are always looking for people to teach, whetehr they're members or they are looking into the church it's always good to teach.

it's amazing how in 1 month someone could change, but i guess maybe if something happened in there life that they felt like they needed a change it would most definitely do something. we met with Anji Timmons as well this week and we are trying to finish teaching her daughter the lessons so she can be baptized but it has been really hard to get a time when they are both home together and we can teach them. her daughter Mary is 10 and wants to be baptized but they want to get lots of the family together to do it, but her grandpa lives in Canada and his health doens't allow him to travel so that is the big hold up with them. we are hoping to help them see the importance of baptism and as hard as it is to not have the family around for it, that it needs to be done instead of continuing to push it off 'til later and then never have it happen ya know?

i dont know if i mentioned it in my email last week or not but Dave Parker a brother from my last area was finally baptized last weekend! it is so great to hear news like that especially when you're having a hard day, it turns things around really quick!

so this past sunday there was a little girl that was baptized she just turned 8 so it was a child of record baptism. anyways a bunch of her family came into town, and before the baptism i was talking with her Grandpa and told him where i was from and he was telling me that he has a son that just moved to Richland and also that he was related to Clair, Craig, and Darren Gibbons, lol i guess they are 1st cousins. i was like no way that is so cool, i was telling him how i was really good friends with their kids. it is such a small world, the brothers name was Dennis Gibbons, so maybe you could mention that to the Gibbons family. i thought it was pretty cool.

this past Saturday we went over to the Page's house and helped them chop firewood, except it wasn't really chopping because they have a hydralic press that does it so we just had to put the wood on it and it would split it, whoever made up that idea probably made lots of money. ha i loved being able to help them with that, and was glad that we were able to do that!

so things slowly picked up this week and it was pretty eventful, our Stake Confrence is not this week but next, then it's General Confrence 2 weeks after that! :) i'm so excited for it! ha weird huh?

i cant believe that i'll be 21 in exactly 2 months! ha oh i forgot to tell you that i got a call from the mission office yesterday and they were telling me that i need to extend my drivers license and i was like i'm already on top of it, i did it last week i told them and they were impressed! ha so it's a good thing i did it last week.
The work does and will continue to move forward! i'm so grateful that i can be out here right now trying to bring the lost sheep back into His fold.

love Elder Randy Anderson

Well hello Family! :)
The start of another month, i cant believe that the months go by this fast. i remember back in the day they seemed to go by so slow and they would never end but this past year especially has flown by faster than ever.

So as you know we had transfers last week and Elder Englung went home, he made it back safely and everything i got an email from him so that's good. i got a new companion, his name is Elder Crunkleton. He is from Columbus, Ohio and has been out the same time i have. we were in different districts in the MTC so i didn't konw him 'til i came into the field. but things are going good so far, it is a bit challenging for me but i guess the Lord has something i need to learn from him and that's why were serving together. i think what he wants me to learn is patience, and i have been praying like crazy that i will have the patience i need to finish this transfer! ha Elder Crunkleton is a great guy but our personalities are totally different and i dont want to talk bad about him so we'll leave it at that.

but i've had a great week this past week. Monday we were getting ready to go into our dinner apt and we got a phone call and it was the Wallace's from Paonia, they were driving back from Denver and wanted to stop and visit, they are the couple we would always help do service work. but they stopped in and took my comp and i out for some desert and we got to visit for awhile. then a family from my last area called just to talk and told me how much they miss me serving in there ward and wish i could come back! i love hearing from all of these people but it makes me miss them and the area.

We had a ward BBQ on Saturday night and we had a couple people that we were working with show up so it was good to see them come and be able to visit and socialize with members of the ward. i dont know if it was because of the free food or why they came ha but they didn't come to church the next day. We've been able to meet with a couple people throughout the week and we had really good lessons with them. we committed one person to be baptized but he said that he didn't think he was ready for it, so we told him that we would be there with him to help him with whatever he needed help with. i hope within the next couple of months we will be able to see something happen with him.

We had a coorilation meeting last night with our Ward mission leader and a member of the different auxillaries in the ward and it went really well i thought, we were able to talk with them and let them know what we are trying to do with the ward and they were really helpful with the things we are needing and they were supportive as well. i think it was the most successful coorilation meeting we've had in this area. i still dont see how much help we are being with working with the less actives and the unknowns, but everyone last night could not stop saying how grateful they were that we were doing this. so i guess we are doing some good here whether it seems like it or not.

i got the ensign you sent me and i was able to read through it all, there were lots of good articles. i really liked a quote that Elder Eyring said at the end of his article "I pray that we and all those we love will drink deeply and daily from it." it reminded me of how you said that school started up and you were able to read as a family and it's just a reminder of how important it is to read the scriptures and to study them. especially as a family, because it's a time that families can spend time together and learn and help strengthen eachothers testimonies. so keep striving to read the scriptures daily.

well i cant wait to hear from y'all again. thanks for all you do. this saturday i hit my 19th month mark! so crazy!!! this fall/winter will fly by. but i hope school and work goes well for everyone,and mom i hope you enjo the rest of your break before you start school up again. i love you all so much!
love Elder Anderson

I cannot believe that August is so close to being over... it has been pretty weird this past week with Elder Englund getting ready to go home. i can say out of the three missionaries that i have "killed" (been the last companion before they go home) this has been the funnest because i feel like we have gotten the most work done even though it really doesn't seem like we have done much and my emails are probably always so boring ha but it's been good being able to serve with him.

i'm so nervous for this next transfer though because i dont want to get a companion that i dont get along with. right after we get done emailing the Ward Mission Leader in our ward is taking Elder Englund over to Denver and i'm going to go on teamups with Elder Allred and his comp for the night, 'til tomorrow morning when my comp will be coming to meet up with us at the transfers out west. i'm excited for the new transfer but not at the same time if that makes any since? i've been lucky enough to get along with every comp that i've had, even though i may not have liked the time serving with certain ones i've gotten along with them.

On Saturday a family that Elder Englund taught and baptized in grand junction came out and we spent all day with them saturday, they spent the night and then came to church on Sunday. they were such a neat family and they plan on going through the temple in a year so Elder Englund is going to come back when they get sealed. i was telling him that i need to go visit him over in Sweden sometime.

Monday night we went over to the Larsens home (a family in the ward) and we had dinner and a activity, it was so fun and like 3 other families from the ward came over so it was a big gathering. there are some families here in this ward that i absolutely love, then there are some that could care less if the ward had missionaries in it. (at least it seems like)

We were able to meet with Jeff again this past week and i thought it went well, we weren't able to teach him that much because he is the type of person that just likes to visit and if he has questions he'll ask them. but we have only went over there twice to sit down and teach him, the other times we just go and visit and answer questions if he has any. we are seeing progress with him, slowly but surely and we cant give up on him because he is one of the top investigators in the area right now.

We also were able to meet with Shawn, he has been taught all of the lessons now and he just doesn't think that there could only be one church with the Priesthood (authority to act in God's name) here upon the earth. He goes to some holy rollers church, i think it would be neat to go with him sometime and sit in on a service.


Other than those two we have just been tracting and then the last 2 or 3 days Elder Englund has been packing some and saying good bye to families in the area. i'm so grateful that i have an hour set aside each morning that i can study the scriptures and be able to strengthen my testimony in them, and be able to learn more about the stories and how i can relate them to my life and into todays world. i really wish i would have studied them more back home, but i cant change that. but i do hope to be able to continue to study them after i get home and not get caught up in the busyness of the everday world.

right now i'm reading through the Book of Mormon in mid Mosiah and i want to try and finish it this time and then again before Christmas and then read the Doctrine and Coventants before i get home, while trying to read through the New Testament. ha it is so much reading, but it's good for me.

i haven't asked President Maynes about being able to go over to the temple yet, but i talked with one of the assistants and he said that he didn't think it would be a problem but that i still needed to ask President Maynes so after transfers i'll give him a call sometime and see what he says.

i'm sure i'll have one more area after this one, not positive but i bet i'll be here maybe this next one and one more then go to a new are for my last two transfers. anyways i cant wait to get your letter and the pictures. i hope y'all enjoy the rest of your time together. i miss you and love you! keep in touch..
love Randy

Family,

Thanks for the letter i got yesterday and the email today, i always love hearing from the family about whats going on back home and how everyone is.even though you say not much is going on, it seems like to me that everything is going on back home.

Like 2 weeks ago i called Brother Benton (from highlands ranch) and left a message. well he called me back a couple days ago and was telling me that the 23rd of this month is his year mark from when he was baptized and that he was planning on going through to take out his endowments sometime soon after that, i was so excited to hear that! i honestly cant believe that it has already been a year since he was baptized. i am going to call our mission President to see if i will be able to make it over there, i really hope that he will let me go over there. i love that family and was so grateful to take part in helping him recieve the gospel. things like that make the misson well worth it! :)

on Monday Elder Englung and i went up to Aspen to check it out! ha it was awesome, we had a dinner apt up that way and so we decided to go up there during the day. we walked around and looked at all the different stores and drove around checking out some of the big houses, it is so crazy how much money is up there in that city. didn't see anyone famous or anything like that but i got some pictures that i'll send to you.

i love going and talking with people on this list that we have been working with, whether they are less active or want absolutely nothing to do with the church, it's fun to hear their stories or excuses! this past week we talked with a gentleman who said that his ex-wife was a member of the church and that he never was, but his name was on the ward roster. so we talked with him for a good 30 minutes and he was a really friendly guy. so on sunday we asked the ward clerk and he went and got all of his information and gave it to us, telling us when he was baptized and all of that. it's weird that he denies the fact that he was baptized. but hey i guess everyone can do as they please. we have an apt with him tomorrow. we also have an apt with a part member family tomorrow, which i hope goes through because we have had a hard time trying to get ahold of them but i really hope it goes through.

i'm so glad that i came out here on the mission, it is hard as heck sometimes but like i said earlier when you see someone be baptized and also when someone you taught goes through the temple it makes it all well worth it! :)

thank you for always being there for me and helping out when i need it, and even when i dont need it y'all are they willing to help me and i thank you for that! :)


well my time is pretty much up and so i better get going, but i cant wait to hear from you again! i hope you enjoy your time with John and Karie and baby Raegan being up! :) i miss you and love you all so much!

love Randy

Eighteen Months of Service

I agree the weeks continue to fly by really fast, i cant believe that is is almost half way through August. it seems like it just started not too long ago. this summer is definitely on the top of summers that have flown by

This week has been a slow week, we really haven't seen that much happen here which really stinks, but we kind of expected it when we decided to work with the inactives and the unknowns. but at least we are getting something done because some of these people have been out of the ward for over 5 years and no one has sent their records out or updated anything on them.

so i guess in a way we are seeing things happen because we are helping the ward narrow down the list but what i meant was that we aren't seeing any progress with investigators. i think bringing inactives back into the church is just as important as baptizing new members. We were able to meet with one of our investigators this past week and answer the questions he had, and it wasn't just a normal teaching appointment ha he took us out mountain biking and on the way up, during our breaks, and the way back we were able to answer questions. that was by far one of the cooler apts i've been to.

Jodi's baptism went really well, and Dave is still scheduled to be baptized this saturday so i'm excited for them. but my time is running short so i have to get going.

we are going to go up to a theme park up ontop of a mtn and i'll have to take pictures of it so you can see. i hope it's fun.

love Randy

On the road again huh? ha must be nice to be able to do all of this traveling and go visit people and different places! it sounds like you had lots of fun on your get away to Idaho, i'm glad to hear. so today is my 18th month mark, crazy to think huh? i will have to record me burning a pair of paints and send it to you here within the week. i've been trying to take lots of pictures so you can see what it's like over here.
Everything has been going well for me out here even though the work hasn't been the best but we are still trying to find people. we've been going through that ward list and also doing tracting and just haven't had any success, which is hard sometimes because you feel like you're doing all of it and not seeing anything from it. but i know that whether or not i'm seeing the blessings in this area or not, that i am still recieving them some way or another.

Dave and Holly a part member family that we were teaching in my last area are going to get married this Saturday and then Dave (who is not a member) is going to be baptized the next Saturday. It is so funny because i was joking with Elder Woollard (my last comp) telling me that i do all the preparing in the field and get them ready and then he is able to harvest lol he laughed. but i think it is so awesome that 2 people (jodi is the other one) i worked with and taught in my last area are getting baptized.

so on Monday we were sitting in the apartment for lunch and i wanted to call Jonathon Van Vleet and see how he was because i hadn't talked with him in awhile and we've been staying in touch. well i left a voicemail because they didn't answer and then they call back like 5 minutes later telling me that they were in Glenwood Springs and asked if they could take us out to dinner, so of course me being my fat self said yes! lol but it was his whole family and it was so good to see them and catch up on whats been going on. David Van Vleet who is Jonathons dad told me that i can come back down to Paonia after my mission and work for him if i want, they are planning on buying a big Ranch out that way and so he offered me a job. it really made me miss Paonia and the people there.

what are the odds of them being in Glenwood at the time i called them!? ha it was great! :) that is one thing i have loved so much about being on my mission, i have been able to make so many great friends that i will stay in touch with forever. and some of those include the ones i was able to share the Gospel with. i think either sometime at the end of this month or begining of next month Brother Benton and Sister Benton (from Highlands Ranch) are planning on going through the temple to be sealed and i really hope that i will be able to get permission to go over there to that. i'm so happy for them!

It is such a blessing to be able to see the growth that people have when they except the gospel and how much it can change their lives. we were also able to give some service this week and hlep a family move out of the ward, i dont know what it is about service work but i absolutely love it. i just feel good while doing it and afterwards, well not physically cuz i'm getting too old for that type of stuff but inside i feel good! lol


so the Warren family here in the ward Darrell (not spelt like dads) Warren is our Bishop and his boy Jeff is like best friends with Wayne Riner! ha we were talking about him the other night. it is such a small world, but the whole Warren family knows him and thinks the world of him! i was like do you know the same Wayne Riner i know! lol just kidding ugly if you read this! but it is neat talking with people about familair things back home. another family in the ward the Page family grew up and graduated from Kenniwick high in '81.. and he said somehow he is related to the Caspers out that way and he is familiar with the basin area.

i love you and am so grateful for all that you do. i hope your week goes well! and i cant wait to hear from you!
Love Randy

The other day i was talking with my last comp Elder Woollard and he told me that the day after i left they set Jodi with a baptismal date and that she is going to be baptizd on August 7th! i was so happy to hear about it. we were able to teach her the first 3 lessons and then as soon as i leave she gets baptized! ha but it's ok i was just happy that i was able to help teach her.

we've had some success this past week with the in-actives and unknowns, but nothing really exciting we are just talking with them and some tell us they want no contact with the church, others say they want their names off the records and some say they are just too lazy to go to church and would love to come back. so there are all sorts of reasons and it is interesting to hear some excuses or things people have to say.

but there is a guy that we started teaching, that we helped move into his house a couple weeks ago and it has been really awesome trying to answer some of his questions, it has been uplifting with some of the spiritual experiences. Last Friday we were able to go to Grand Junction for Zone Confrence, which is about the same distance as from Connell to Spokane and i have the driving privilege in this area so i was able to get on I-70 and drive.. ha you might think i'm weird but i loved being able to drive i haven't been able to go up to speeds like that in forever! ha i mean here we are in the city so it's always 25 or 35 but none of that matters lol i just wanted to let you know we went to Zone Confrence in Grand Junction and it was fun to drive all the way there.

so Zone Confrence was on repentance and it was really awesome i loved it. it was my first one with President Maynes and it was totally different, he made it seem more personal and it wasn't a talk or training to us all, he involved all of us and asked lots of questions. it was great, i was able to have interviews with him also and we got on the subject of schooling and we talked about how i'll be home in early-mid february and if i should go home a couple weeks early to catch school or if i should wait 'til fall or what i should do. and he told me to bring it up to you (mom and dad) and see what you thought.

The First Presidency have asked that we have zone confrence every 3 months and interviews in the middle of that 3 months if that makes since? so they are making some changes world wide with the way they run things. i'm enjoying this area more and as i am getting to know the members i'm liking it more and more so i'm happy. i hope to stay here for quite a while.

i love you all so much! miss you! :)

love Randy

Glenwood Springs is a beautiful area, and i know that i will love it the longer i am here but i still get bummed sometimes because i had to leave my last area, like i said last week it is hard leaving areas after being there for so long and building so many friendships with the people. but with time i know that this will be such a great area, it is right in the middle of the mountains with the Colorado river running right through the town and anything and everything an outdoors persons like myself could ask for! ha thing is that i really am not supposed to much like that. i kind of want to stay here through winter but again at the same time i don't because there is primo snowmobiling just 5 minutes away and also tons of ski resorts ha. it is a tourist type town and so there is always people visiting from out of town or state. we are only 40 minutes away from Aspen so i plan on going up there sometime before i leave and getting pictures up there just to say I've been in aspen ha... i know that all of you would love it up here, it is a laid back type of feeling.

My companion's name is Elder Englund and he is from Sweden, he is a great guy and i can tell that we will get along well. it is nice because he goes home at the end of this transfer and he really wants to work out before he leaves so everyday we actually work out it is awesome! :) he is going home a transfer early just because he is a foreigner and i think it is something with his visa or something like that, but he came out with the group of missionaries that would be going home in October so he just leaving like 6 weeks early. i was released as a district leader so i'm a free man now! :) ha i kind of like coming into areas and then taking them over after being here only one transfer. this will be my 3rd missionary that i have "killed" meaning i was his last companion before he went home, and i think he will be the easiest one out of the 3 because he still has a desire to work hard.

Elder Englund and i decided that the best thing we could do for the ward right now is try to find and contact inactive members and "unknown" members meaning no one knows who they are, so that's what we have been doing and it has been really nice. there are just over 200 families that we need to contact so it will take us awhile to get ahold of them all and try to see if they are still around. but the leaders in the ward told us that if we did that we would leave the area as legends ha because it is stressful knowing that there is that many people that no one knows about.

we only have about 130 active each week and so i could imagine how big the ward would be if at least half of those families came back. there are also a handful of investigators that we are working with and we will have at least one baptism before the transfer is over, it's a goal we've made and we know with the Lord's help it will happen! so i'm excited to see what types of things i can do to help this ward/area.

so do you remember the Riley family from Highlands Ranch that i always talked about? well Brother Riley's parents are here in my Ward! ha it is such a small world! So i was wondering how all of these famlies or people have become inactive up here and one of the reasons i thought of was because they might have their testimonies as we all do and it's not that your testimony isn't there, but that you dont "feed it" so to say and so it weakens and eventually leaves you or your dont care enough to strengthen it. so just a challenge i wanted to leave with the family is to make sure that you are feeding your testimony, to continue to study the scriptures and do the things that the Prophets have asked us to do. i know that Jesus Christ died for us that we might be able to return and live with him and our Father in Heaven again someday, but more important i know that Jesus Christ lives and speaks with our Prophet, i'm so very grateful to be a member of the church and for all of the blessings that come with being a member. i'm so grateful for all of you and the continuous love and support you show me.

i love you and miss you! thank you so much for all that you do! :) cant wait to hear back from you..

love Randy

Glenwood Springs, CO

Elder Randy Anderson

808 Garfield Ave. Apt. B

Glenwood Springs, CO 81601

Elder Anderson is Getting Transferred!

Well i'm on to another area. which is good in a way but at the same time i've really enjoyed being in this area and i've grown close with all the members here. I got the call last night and i can say that it was probably the least i've been nervous about where i was getting transferred or if i was, just because whatever happens happens and i'll roll with it. so i got the call and Elder Forsyth told me that i needed to make sure that my bike was in a bike box because it would be going on the trailer, meaning that it was going out west. whether or not he was being serious or just teasing me i dont know but i kind of hope that he was being serious. so tomorrow morning i'll find out where i'm actually going and i'll call a member in this area and have him email you if thats ok? and he can give you my address and all of that. it is so crazy to think about how i only have 5 transfers left, i've been in this area for 4 transfers already so i'm thinking i will have 2 more areas before i finish, at least i hope.

the baptism on saturday was amazing! :) the spirit was so strong and they had lots of family in town and the ward support was awesome as well! :) the font was giving us trouble as we were filling it up so like 10 minutes before the baptism our bishop took his shoes and socks off and rolled up his pants and got in there and put a towel over the drain, because the O-ring broke that kept water from coming in when the drain was closed. but other than that the whole baptismal service went really well. it was such a neat experience because after Brother Gaus baptized his 2 kids he told Elder Woollard and I that he could not have done it without us, i was like wow those are powerful words. because it's true if we had not gone over there every week and helped him and the family with their struggles he wouldn't of been prepared to baptize his kids. i'm so grateful for that family and the relationship that i have built with them.

we taught the 2nd lesson to Jodi this past week and she is scheduled to be taught the 3rd on friday, she told us that she wants to be baptized which is so awesome! :) but it stinks that i'm leaving because i wont be able to see it happen. but i know that i've done what i needed to do here in this area and i'm needed somewhere else so i'm fine with that. i am going to go around this evening and say good bye to people in the ward and have a couple of them sign my journal so that way i can keep in touch with them. I have loved all the wonderfull people that i have met on my mission, and i hope to meet plenty more before the end.

i hope that things continue to go well for everyone. everything is going good for me and i'm kind of excited for the change that is going to happen. 6 1/2 months seems so far away but so close at the same time i need to continue to press on and be strong but i get bummed out sometimes. but no need to worry i just need to keep doing what i'm doing and enjoy it while i still can.. i love you all so much and am so grateful for all you do, tell everyone hello for me. i cant wait to hear from you next week and i'll let you know where i'm at and how everything is. love you so much! :)

love Randy

Grandma & Grandpa Anderson! :)
lol it sounds so weird saying that to you two, but so awesome at the same time knowing that you have a grand baby! that has to be so exciting for you. Raegan is going to be a cute spoiled little girl i have a feeling already ha. Isn't it crazy to think that not too long ago baby Raegan was up in Heaven with our father in Heaven and with Great Grandma and Grandpa Anderson and Edler? Make sure to give her lots of hugs and kisses for me! :) ha wow i cant wait to see her and the rest of the family! :)
So i was able to meet with our new mission President and talk with him and his wife. They both seem like really nice people and i look forward to getting to know them better. they are really quiet spoken and i think its mainly because this is all new to them and i know i was the same way at the begining of my mission. He definitely knows his scriptures he has taught seminary and institute all his life. it wasn't really an interview it was more of a just trying to get to know everyone type of thing.

i cant believe that next week are transfers already it honestly feels like we just had transfers. i am really curious as to what will happen, President Maynes complimented me for being in the area for so long and with the same companion and he said the Lord must be please with the things you are doing. i would like to stay another one but at the same time i'm leaning more towards wanting to leave just because i only have 5 more transfers and i would like to see more of the mission or be in different areas. i'll keep you informed as to what happens. the work is still moving along in this area the baptism is still on for this Saturday which i am really excited for. it is so great to see how much people can change if they apply the Gospel standards into their lives and start living the way the Savior would have them live. this family has completely turned around and it has been such a great experience seeing it happen.

We were able to go over to Jodi's home and share the first lesson with her and we have another appointment set for tomorrow night to share the second lesson. the first lesson went really well and we were able to answer lots of her questions. she expressed an interest to be baptized so we are both really excited for her.

On Thursday we went over to the O'neal families home with 6 Relief Society sisters and helped them pack up a bunch of things and help them get ready for their move. Unfortunately they wont be baptized before they move because of certain reasons but that's ok we will refer them to the missionaries down in Texas and have them go over and work with them.

We have been able to do some service work this past week and it feels good to be out doing some physical work besides walking or riding a bike ha. the weather has been really nice except on the 4th it rained really hard and then yesterday it rained as well. it is supposed to clear up here soon and be hot again. what has the weather been like back home?

I'm so grateful to know that families can be together forever through Heavenly Fathers plan! i love you all so much!!! this is such an exciting time! :)

love Randy

So i guess President Christison took off yesterday, i didnt they he was going to be leaving 'til Thursday but yesterday afternoon sometime the new mission President came in and he had his orientation then they had lunch together and then President and Sister Christison left. it will be interesting to meet the new mission President and see how he does things. i know i'll miss President Christison but at the same time i'm sure this new one President Maynes will have lots of good qualities as well.

so last p-day we had another set of missionaries move in with us because the members they were living with had housed the missionaries for almost 2 years and it was time for them to get out so they came over to our little apartment ha and it was so crowded and it was crazy having 4 big guys in such a small place, but we managed and they left last night to another members home. but the housing coordinators (a senior couple) Elder and Sister Morgenegg who helped move them out last night said that they got to meet the new mission President and they said he is a great man.

On sunday we had a lady speak in sacrament who has just recently become active within the last year because her 16 year old son was baptized and she has since been through the temple and received her endowment. well her roomate (a lady named Jodi) has come out to church a few times and just came out again this past sunday when she spoke. Well yesterday we were out tracting and we got a phone call and it was from her and she asked us when we could come over and start teaching her the lessons, we were like whenever works best for you! :) haha it is so exciting when something like that happens.

We went over to the Gaus families home on Saturday because it was Wryleys birthday and he was having a bunch of friends over so before his party we went and helped brother Gaus fill up 500 water balloons. Then on Sunday evening Brother Gaus was ordained into the office of Priest and so now he will be able to baptize his 2 kids on the 10th of July, Wryley and Hailey. Hailey is 8 so she will be a child of record baptism, but Wryley is 11 so he'll be considered a convert. it is so awesome to see how far this family has come since we first went over there, i've loved being able to go over there and work with them.

The O'neal family is having a huge yard sale this friday and saturday trying to sell most of their stuff before they head out, so we are going to go over there again with our Relief Society President and help pack things up and share another lesson, last week the lesson went well and they still seem like they want to be baptized before they leave but they haven't been to church recently so i dont know if it will actually happen or not but we keep praying for them.

thank you for all that you do. i love you so much and am so grateful that i have the chance to be out here on a mission serving the Lord. miss you and love you!
Love Randy

hey! :)
things are going good for me, it has been so hot lately. we got some rain sometime since i last emailed and it was hot out so it wasn't a cold rain and i enjoyed it and it was definitely needed. i'm really suprised as to how dry it is here in Colorado the dry heat kills.

we have just been out doing lots of tracting and trying to teach people, since it's Presidents last full week our zone wants to try and get 50 hours of accountability per companionship which is like 25 hours tracted and 25 lessons taught or it could be mixed up in different ways but we want to send him out with a bang and show him how much of an impact he has had on our mission. i still dont know where him and sister christison plan on heading to once they finish.

we are going to go over to the O'neal families home tomorrow with our Relief Society President and talk with her about the things she is wanting to do before the move. they weren't able to make it to church on sunday, i dont know why but we really hope that everything will go good and we will be able to teach and baptize them before they head out.

Elder Woollard and i taught combined young men and young women last Sunday, it was on missionary work and the lady who would normally teach asked us if we would do it, and we said we would. it was fun being able to talk to the youth about how they can be better missionaries to their friends.

well i love you and miss you so much! thank you for all that you do. tell everyone hi for me and make sure to enjoy your week! :) love you!!!

love Randy

We had our last zone conference with President Christison on Monday and i got a picture with him and sister Christison, it was a cool zone conference. we just went over everything that they have trained on throughout their mission and talked about it all. i love President and Sister Christison and cant wait to see them after my mission.I'm sure President Maynes will be a good President as well.

On Sunday we taught the deacons quorum, because the lesson was on preparing for a mission and it was awesome to be able to talk to them about some of the things i wish i could of done better to come out.

the Paula family has a daughter who is 17 and she has a boyfriend that has sat in on a couple of the lessons we've taught them and he also went to Leila's baptism, anyways he told us that he wants to take the lessons and eventually be baptized, we were like that is so awesome!

also there is this family that we worked with like right when i first got here but then we dropped them because they were not progressing, anyways last week they called and asked if we could get the ward to help out with them moving and getting things packed up because her dad is dying down in texas and she wants to be down there with him. anyways while we were talking with her she told us that she wants her and her two kids to be baptized before they leave. we are so excited and it is is awesome to see the Lord blessing us for working hard.

so if all goes well we could have 4 or 5 baptisms by this next transfer.

later today we are going to go throw the football around.

i miss you and love you so much!

love Randy

Yeah i was kind of bummed that i didn't get that package on Saturday, but i did get it on monday and everything was still there, no complaints ha. all of the chocolate was melted so i stuck it in the freezer trying to get it to harder up, it's all deformed ha but it's still good! :) thank you for that, i love get packages from you. and it's been really awesome i told Elder Woollard how the family normally writes me every sunday and then sends it out monday so he told his family to do that and they have been so he has been happy with getting mail and what not so i'm happy for him. i cant wait to get your letter that you sent on monday! :)

well this past week has been a good week for me but at the same time it's had it's things that have brought me down. Sunday morning our phone rang and it was Sister Wallace a lady from my last area she called to let me know that Brother Dean Van Vleet the member that i lived with passed away earlier that morning, i guess he was having heart problems and breathing problems but they were away at a rock show in Price Utah and he passed away in his sleep. i know that he is in a better place but it was still hard to hear because i was wanting to go back and introduce the family to him, he was and is such a great guy. his grandson called me later that day to let me know and i told him that i had heard, he seemed to be doing alright but was kind of stuggling so i was able to talk with him. i'm so glad that i have a testimony of the Plan of Salvation and know that we can be together with our families again after this life. i asked our mission President if i could go out and attend the funeral and he said that it was probably best that i didn't.

anyways late in the week last week i was riding my bike through a bike path and it was swampy and this bird hit me in the back of the head and landed between my back pack and my back and so i look back and i saw one fly off and i thought it was gone so i reach back to feel were he pecked me and the dumb this was still there ha so i hit it and he flew off, Elder Woollard was behind me a ways just laughing. ha so i can officially say that i've been attacked by a bird. ha..

We are going to push back Wryleys baptism to July 10th because his extended family wont be able to make it the 19th of June. But we are still going over there weekly and working with the family.

we got to teach Dave Parker and Holly Josephson the 2nd lesson on Sunday and it went really well, they are talking about getting married so they can be baptized, we aren't sure when it will happen yet but we are excited.

Ok so 2 Sundays ago i let Elder Woollard take the dinner calendar to church with a binder that we take on Sundays, anways we get back that night and he doesn't have it! ha so as of right now we dont have a dinner calendar and we rely on those that are feeding us to call us if they remember ha! we have serched the apt, the members home who we had dinner with, the member who took us home from church and still no luck! so we keep praying that we'll find it.

We were able to do some service work this past week as well, on Friday a family moved into the ward, there son is in the bishopric anyways we helped them unload the 53' moving truck that they had full ha and it was the hottest day of the year yet. so we got a great work out! ha and then right after that the next morning we helped a member break a pattio of concrete and then load it up into a truck and take it to the dump. so i've had quite the work out this past week, between riding bike and lifting a bunch of things. we have lots of potential in this area and pray that we will be able to see success.

well thank you for the email and the letters that you send. take care and have a great week. i miss you and love you so much! let me know if there is anything i can do for you! love you! :)
Elder Anderson