Elder Randy Anderson on his 20th Birthday. We Love you and we are all so proud of you!!!

Harlen comes to Paoina thanks to Elder Matt Andersen

With all of his Birthday gifts. Randy will be warm in Paonia this winter.

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