Well it's been 8 days since i last emailed home because the library was closed. I want to thank everyone that follows my blog and also the family thank you so much for the Birthday wishes it meant a lot to know that so many people are thinking of me. My day went well i woke early in the morning and i went down stairs (where i put the gifts the night before) and i opened up just as if i was at home haha i took some pictures and send them home so maybe mom will put some on the blog. The best part of the day was definitely the church service, during sacrament it was the Primary Program and the little kids did such a good job it made my day to watch them up there, and i thought how it seems like it was just the other day i was up there myself doing that. Also Jenny was confirmed into the church so that was good. The rest of the day was just a normal day in the mission and then that night we had dinner at the Holyoaks and they cooked pork chops and potatoes and had a delicous chocolate pie afterwards, it wasn't as good as momma cooks it but it was a great dinner. so my birthday went well and i thank everyone once again for all you did! :) So the new Elder in the area is Elder Hahne and you pronounce his name like this (hah) (knee) so its like your laughing and then your knee, if that makes since at all? lol anyways he has been out on his mission just over 3 months and this is his second area so im doing what they call a follow up trainer cuz im the next comp of his besides his trainer. He is from Carson City, Nevada he turned 19 back in june and then came out a month or so later. He was home school all through high school cuz i guess the high school he would have went to was a ghetto school, but not being mean but you can see some of the things he missed out on not going to a public school. With being social and little things like that but there are a few obvious things that i can see why he is with me. One being that he absolutely stinks at directions and remembering peoples names and for all of you that know me those are two of my strengths! ha so i guess i help him with that lots. Another thing is that he is not the neatest person in the world, seriously though like leaves everything right where he gets done with it and you know me i have OCD so i have to clean up after him and help him out. haha but he is definitely a great missionary and i know i will learn from him as well. i didn't get a picture of him on that last SD card but i will get one with this next one so you can all see him. So Elder Hahne and i have been trying to help him get familiar with the area and the people, so i have been doing all of the planning at night time cuz he doesn't know anything. I had a pretty neat experience with that though cuz i think it was Friday i was planning and felt like we needed to tract this street called "German Crk" and so we were up there tracting and tracted into this girl that was at Jenny's baptism 2 sundays ago. Earlier in the week when Elder Jensen was still here we talked to her to ask who she was and she told us and she said that the girl was wanting to be baptized but her mother wouldn't let her until she was 18 years old so we were like alrighty. But when we were tracting we ran into her and i asked the mom if we could come back and share more with her sometime and she said that it was up to the daughter (Jenny's friend) and i thought she was joking and then we talked for a little while longer and so i asked again right before we left and she said "no really it's up to my daughter" so i asked the daughter and she told us to come back in 2 weeks cuz she has been really busy with school things so i thought it was pretty neat that the spirit guided us up that way. The rest of my week has gone well, nothing else cool like that has happened but it has been a good overall week. We have a few apts tonight with a couple people who are looking into the church so hopefully it will go good. It was hard at times on Sunday because it was my birthday and i wasn't by the family or loved ones so it made it hard but it was good overall. For thanksgiving i think we take the whole day off and then email either the day before or after, but there is a family in the ward actually the same family that fed us on halloween is gonna feed us Thanksgiving, it will be so weird to have all of these holidays away from home. but i'll just have to do my best to make the most of them. yes the ward members are great to us here! So i guess until next time... farewell and enjoy the weekend coming up and be safe. i want to thank you all once again for the things you do for me and for staying in touch with me! i miss you and love you all so much! let me know if there is anything i can do to help anyone out. GO EAGLES!!!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! :) weird combination i know lol but yeah...love,Elder Anderson

Hello Family! So you guessed it right, im staying here in Paonia for at least another transfer. Elder Jensen found out last night that he is getting transfered and is becoming a zone leader so its gonna stink to see him go cuz he is a good missionary and keeps me inline for the most part but at the same time its gonna be a relief to get someone new. so im excited/nervous to find out who comes into the area. but transfers are tomorrow so we will head up to Grand Junction and be there about noon and then i guess we'll find out. Matt sent me a package and it didn't say dont open until the 8th so i opened yesterday and it was a " I Love Harlem" shirt! haha its pretty sweet. but this sunday in church is the primary program so that will be a great sacrament meeting on my birthday. It's gonna be so weird having a birthday away from family/loved ones! but we'll see how it goes i guess. So the baptism went through and i thought that the service went really well. Stewy the boyfriend doesn't have a white shirt or tie so i gave him one of my shirts and ties just cuz he said he didn't have one and i thought i had plenty and he could use it more than me so i let him keep them. Her parents came to the bapstism and i thought that the spirit was really strong and her mother was crying so she had to feel something. But there is a statistic that 3 out of 4 people that attend a baptism end up converting as well, so maybe we will see something with her mother here soon? we haven't had too much happen since last week really, we've done lots and lots of tracting and tried visiting tons of in-active members cuz there are lots of them here, ha but there hasn't been too much going on. But im sure we will see some blessings from working hard later on down the road. we have done lots of service this past week, which reminds me! LOL so the couple that we helped build the pig fence for a couple weeks back, well we went back over there to help them extend it out further and help them with some other things. well they have one pig that is about the size of the pigs at fair time and then a few smaller ones, well anyhoo they have that same tape thing to measure the pigs and they wanted the big pig measured cuz they are gonna take it to the slaughter house well i got in there and was trying to measure it and the dumb thing kept running around and wouldn't stay still so i sat there and tried to let it get familar with me but it just ran around in circles so i finally gave up on that and grabbed the back leg and was trying to wrestle it down to the ground but he was a BIG PIG ha and it wasn't happening but he was squealing like crazy and so i let it go and was about to give up on the whole deal and i was walkin back to the fence to get out and the pig walked over to me and just stopped like right next to me and so they threw me the tape and i measured it and then the pig stayed there and i was petting it and i got out and was walking on the fence and the pig kept following me everywhere i went! lol it was funny they all were like what did you do. ha so yeah my week has consisted of lots of service work which i love to do! and missionary work wasn't the best this past week, we tried but no one was too receptive. miss you all so much! Keep in touch with me and let everyone know that i say hello! i hope that things continue to go well for you. LOVE YOU!!! Love, Randy

After the recent snow storm in Paonia. Randy traded in his pedal bike for this ride!!!!
LOL

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

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

Is this what the Elders are driving in Paonia?

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