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