how has everything been going for y'all? i hope life its treating ya well and your not too busy with things. i have been doing pretty good it has kind of been a low key week for me but things are going good. so i am staying in the area for another transfer and of course Elder Harmon is leaving. i'll find out tomorrow who my next companion is so i'll write you a letter or just wait and tell you about it in next weeks email. but yeah so what i meant by this
week has kind of been a low key one is because Elder Harmon has been sick since monday with the flu or something but he has been vomiting and other things as well so that's no good and all he has done really is stayed at the apartment and took care of that problem and napped and he has been packing up his bags. so in the meantime i have been cleaning the apartment more than it already has been haha and reading the scriptures so this week not too much has happened. although late last week i was able to give another baptismal interview. this time it was a girl who is 12 years old and she is actually exactly a week younger than Morgan haha but it was good and i could tell that she had a testimony of her own, that she wasn't just using borrowed light, ya know? then that next day was the baptism and Elder Harmon and i went because they invited us, it was a great service. it kind of made me think back to when i got baptized and i cant believe that was 12 years ago! wow crazy crazy... we have just been tracting and tracting and more tracting last week and then on Sunday we had Stake Confrence and it was pretty neat because i am now in the same stake that i was in when i started my mission in Crestmoore so i got to see a lot of the members that were from my first area! other than that not too much has happened, i do not like being cooped up inside all day so these past 2-3 days have not been the best but that's ok i just hope he gets better before he goes home. we (another set of Elders and i) gave him a blessing this morning so he'll be good. i do hope my next companion has a bike though! haha i dont like walking everywhere. so maybe i'll have more to talk about next week in my email but i'm going to respond to your email.
thank you for the continuous letters of love and support! i love hearing from everyone! take care.. i miss you and love you!!!
love Randy
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Grandma and Grandpa Anderson! lol i thought an uncle made me sound old but Grandma and Grandpa is even older! ha how has everyone been doing? i have been doing pretty good, doing even better today now that John and Karie found out what they are having! :)
the weather has been pretty good here as well i think yesterday it was up in the 50's but i heard there is supposed to be a storm within the next week so i guess we'll see. i cant believe it's been up in the low 60's back home that is crazy!
i cant believe that we are only a month away from General Confrence again! i'm so excited, it seems like it was jus the other day. i'm getting to know the ward members some here in this area but no where near like it was in Paonia i just dont feel the connection that i did out there, but i'm trying.
so i dont know if this week was as good as the last, but it was still a great week and we got lots done so i guess it was a good one also. to answer you question though, i think that i will stay here in the area as well. so we didn't go to the temple today because Elder Harmon's temple recommend expired and he is going to have an interview with President the day before he leaves to get a new one so we just had a regular morning and then came down here to email. the rest of the day we are hoping to get a bunch of missionaries together and to go play basketball and football.
i was able to conduct another baptismal interview late last week. Elder Allred and i went on team ups for the afternoon because it was their investigator and we had a lesson with this guy before i interviewed him because he was having doubts and lots of questions before hand, but it was the adversary working on him. he told us that he would be able to answer some of the questions truthfully that i would ask him. but Elder Allred and his companion could see a pattern of it all the other times they were over there, with the doubt. but we answered questions he had and it was a really really spiritual experience there was so much praying going on before during and after the apt it was amazing! but after we taught him he was like ok i want you to ask me those questions so he and i went into another room and i interviewed him and when it came to the question that he thought he wouldn't be able to answer he stopped and said a prayer and when he was praying i was praying that he'd recieve and answer and after 30 seconds he looked up and was like yes to the question which was "Do you believe that Jospeh Smith was the Prophet of the Restoration and that the current church President is a Prophet of God." so it was pretty sweet!
but Elder Harmon and i finally got in contact with the Paula family and we are going to teach Leila next week and hopefully she'll be baptized not this saturday but next if everything works out. Those are some of the highlights and then lots of tracting, that is pretty much my past week! :) haha
well i better get going, thanks for all the stuff you do, i miss you and love you all! :) keep in touch!
love Randy
the weather has been pretty good here as well i think yesterday it was up in the 50's but i heard there is supposed to be a storm within the next week so i guess we'll see. i cant believe it's been up in the low 60's back home that is crazy!
i cant believe that we are only a month away from General Confrence again! i'm so excited, it seems like it was jus the other day. i'm getting to know the ward members some here in this area but no where near like it was in Paonia i just dont feel the connection that i did out there, but i'm trying.
so i dont know if this week was as good as the last, but it was still a great week and we got lots done so i guess it was a good one also. to answer you question though, i think that i will stay here in the area as well. so we didn't go to the temple today because Elder Harmon's temple recommend expired and he is going to have an interview with President the day before he leaves to get a new one so we just had a regular morning and then came down here to email. the rest of the day we are hoping to get a bunch of missionaries together and to go play basketball and football.
i was able to conduct another baptismal interview late last week. Elder Allred and i went on team ups for the afternoon because it was their investigator and we had a lesson with this guy before i interviewed him because he was having doubts and lots of questions before hand, but it was the adversary working on him. he told us that he would be able to answer some of the questions truthfully that i would ask him. but Elder Allred and his companion could see a pattern of it all the other times they were over there, with the doubt. but we answered questions he had and it was a really really spiritual experience there was so much praying going on before during and after the apt it was amazing! but after we taught him he was like ok i want you to ask me those questions so he and i went into another room and i interviewed him and when it came to the question that he thought he wouldn't be able to answer he stopped and said a prayer and when he was praying i was praying that he'd recieve and answer and after 30 seconds he looked up and was like yes to the question which was "Do you believe that Jospeh Smith was the Prophet of the Restoration and that the current church President is a Prophet of God." so it was pretty sweet!
but Elder Harmon and i finally got in contact with the Paula family and we are going to teach Leila next week and hopefully she'll be baptized not this saturday but next if everything works out. Those are some of the highlights and then lots of tracting, that is pretty much my past week! :) haha
well i better get going, thanks for all the stuff you do, i miss you and love you all! :) keep in touch!
love Randy
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Another week has gone by already, it is crazy to think about how fast it seems every wednesday comes and goes. things have been going good for me out here. it has been an event filled week with all sorts of different things going on, which has kept me very busy but in a good way! :)
i get quite a few letters and within the first 3 weeks of being here Elder Harmon was like you've gotten more letter in these couple of weeks than i have in the past 9 weeks or so and i was like dang that stinks. but then i also thought of how blessed i am that all of you continue to write me and support me. i'm very grateful for y'all! but maybe i just need the support more than they do? ha i think every companion i have served with says that i have been the companion that has gotten the most mail out of anyone they know. i'm blessed with good friends and family that love me!
so this week like i said has been a pretty event filled week with the highlight probably being Elder Perry coming to the mission and speaking to us. it was such a great experience and he asked if he could shake all of our hands so we all got to shake hands with him and you could just feel the presence of the spirit so strongly!!! he is a big guy, i'm not sure exactly how tall he is but he is at least 6'3" or 6'4" ha and has huge hands. we all thought he was going to talk on the Ward Missionary Coordilation thing that was introduced last year but he just spoke to us about the Gospel on a broad topic. it was a spiritual experience but at the same time it is always neat to see that they are just normal people in a way he was making jokes left and right and had a great personality. He would share stories about him and other Apostles and he would call them by their first names. the day before Elder Perry came we got to have that leadership training with President Christison and it was the zone leaders and the district leaders it was good being able to be so close with President and be able to be trained by him in a small group setting. the mission as a whole is doing really well right now and he seems to be pleased as well as Elder Perry and Elder Hallstrom of the Predidency of the Seventy. oh when we were in that training we found out who our new mission President is going to be his name is President Allen R. Maynes and he works with the church educational system and is currently in Price Utah teaching institute, im not sure where he is actually from but he comes in July 1st so it will be sad to see President and Sister Christison leave.
i also got to conduct my first baptismal interview.. with being a district leader whenever anyone in your district has a baptism coming up you are in charge of interviewing the person and making sure that he or she is worthy and ready to go. this gentlmans name was Edwin and he is from liberia, the zone leaders taught him and he will be going to the singles ward. i'll tell you what, doing that interview was an experience in itself just to see Edwin make this choice and to hear his testimony and knowing that he has had the spirit bear witness to him of its truthfullness. i'd tell ya more but yeah.... it was a great experience i'll just say that! :) we had another district meeting yesterday and this one i centered everything on Christlike Attributes and i thought it went really well. so yeah that is pretty much how my weeek has been it was a good one, and i hope that this next week will be just as positive and exciting!
I miss you all and love you all so much! keep in touch and have a great rest of the week! :) bye bey
love Randy
oh and you asked when transfers are, well they are the 11th of March so it's coming up.
i get quite a few letters and within the first 3 weeks of being here Elder Harmon was like you've gotten more letter in these couple of weeks than i have in the past 9 weeks or so and i was like dang that stinks. but then i also thought of how blessed i am that all of you continue to write me and support me. i'm very grateful for y'all! but maybe i just need the support more than they do? ha i think every companion i have served with says that i have been the companion that has gotten the most mail out of anyone they know. i'm blessed with good friends and family that love me!
so this week like i said has been a pretty event filled week with the highlight probably being Elder Perry coming to the mission and speaking to us. it was such a great experience and he asked if he could shake all of our hands so we all got to shake hands with him and you could just feel the presence of the spirit so strongly!!! he is a big guy, i'm not sure exactly how tall he is but he is at least 6'3" or 6'4" ha and has huge hands. we all thought he was going to talk on the Ward Missionary Coordilation thing that was introduced last year but he just spoke to us about the Gospel on a broad topic. it was a spiritual experience but at the same time it is always neat to see that they are just normal people in a way he was making jokes left and right and had a great personality. He would share stories about him and other Apostles and he would call them by their first names. the day before Elder Perry came we got to have that leadership training with President Christison and it was the zone leaders and the district leaders it was good being able to be so close with President and be able to be trained by him in a small group setting. the mission as a whole is doing really well right now and he seems to be pleased as well as Elder Perry and Elder Hallstrom of the Predidency of the Seventy. oh when we were in that training we found out who our new mission President is going to be his name is President Allen R. Maynes and he works with the church educational system and is currently in Price Utah teaching institute, im not sure where he is actually from but he comes in July 1st so it will be sad to see President and Sister Christison leave.
i also got to conduct my first baptismal interview.. with being a district leader whenever anyone in your district has a baptism coming up you are in charge of interviewing the person and making sure that he or she is worthy and ready to go. this gentlmans name was Edwin and he is from liberia, the zone leaders taught him and he will be going to the singles ward. i'll tell you what, doing that interview was an experience in itself just to see Edwin make this choice and to hear his testimony and knowing that he has had the spirit bear witness to him of its truthfullness. i'd tell ya more but yeah.... it was a great experience i'll just say that! :) we had another district meeting yesterday and this one i centered everything on Christlike Attributes and i thought it went really well. so yeah that is pretty much how my weeek has been it was a good one, and i hope that this next week will be just as positive and exciting!
I miss you all and love you all so much! keep in touch and have a great rest of the week! :) bye bey
love Randy
oh and you asked when transfers are, well they are the 11th of March so it's coming up.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
hello everyone,
how is everything going? i am doing pretty dang good out here just really tired all the time ha. i'm not sure when but this area has been the area that i've gotten the least amount of sleep at nights, just some nights i'll wake up and lay there ha so when morning comes i feel like i didn't get any sleep. i'm starting to sound like an old man like dad! haha just teasing dad i love you! :) but we do tons and tons of walking around here so that is probably why i am tired as well, i dont have the luxury of driving a car! but maybe i'll lose some fat from walking since every says i'm fat! lol but anyways besides the fact that i'm tired all the time everything is going good. those, ok i'm back... that would be pretty weird having church at 10:30 for you back home, that was weird for me when i came out here into the field because 9:00 is the only time i can remember going to church and then coming out here and having to change times a bunch. like right now we start church at 1 and dont get out 'til 4 so it makes for a long day, espeically on fast sunday! haha i cant believe that luke strong or Elder Strong goes into the MTC today haha that is so crazy! seems like just last month we were there and now he is going in, how long will he be in the MTC for? yeah when you his address please get it to me so i can write him.
well as for me and how i have been doing, or what we have been doing. things are going well, we have just been doing lots and lots of tracting. we have only a handful of investigators but they haven't been around or there are but we just haven't been able to get in touch with them. i still haven't even met some of the people that they were working with last transfer just because everytime we try by they are gone. so i hope that sometime this week we will be able to sit down and teach some people. that little 9 year old girl and her family were out of town last week (they took a vacation with the long weekend) so we weren't able to visit with them, but we have an apt on friday to teach them so i bet things will go well then and we will be able to set a day that she is going to want to be baptized. Elder Harmon has 3 weeks left so he has his moments when he gets a tad bit trunky (thinking about home) but it isn't near as bad as it was with the one companion i served with while in highlands ranch Elder Fauvell! haha but Elder Harmon and i get along well and i know i am learning things from him that i have needed work on and im sure it's the same way with him. we had another district meeting yesterday and everyone said i did a great job with it, although i dont really think so but hey whatever if other people like it than it's all good. ha :) so on Friday we have a leadership training at the mission home, where it's just the zone leaders and district leaders so it will be good we get a little more time to be trained by President Christison so i'm excited for that. then on saturday morning at 8 Elder Perry will come to one of the stake centers and all the missionaries on the metro side will meet there and he will talk with us for two hours, then he has to be on his way. but i think it will be great, i cant wait to be that close with an Apostle and him speaking to such a small crowd. i guess he is the oldest of The 12... but i do hope this week we are able to get a lot more done than just tracting, dont get me wrong tracting isn't terrible but it definitely isn't my favorite thing to do as a missionary so maybe we will get to teach people.
well i better get going now, thank y'all for everything that you do. things are going well for me and i hope things continue to go well for all of you! i miss you all and cant wait to hear back from you! keep in touch! miss n love you!!
how is everything going? i am doing pretty dang good out here just really tired all the time ha. i'm not sure when but this area has been the area that i've gotten the least amount of sleep at nights, just some nights i'll wake up and lay there ha so when morning comes i feel like i didn't get any sleep. i'm starting to sound like an old man like dad! haha just teasing dad i love you! :) but we do tons and tons of walking around here so that is probably why i am tired as well, i dont have the luxury of driving a car! but maybe i'll lose some fat from walking since every says i'm fat! lol but anyways besides the fact that i'm tired all the time everything is going good. those, ok i'm back... that would be pretty weird having church at 10:30 for you back home, that was weird for me when i came out here into the field because 9:00 is the only time i can remember going to church and then coming out here and having to change times a bunch. like right now we start church at 1 and dont get out 'til 4 so it makes for a long day, espeically on fast sunday! haha i cant believe that luke strong or Elder Strong goes into the MTC today haha that is so crazy! seems like just last month we were there and now he is going in, how long will he be in the MTC for? yeah when you his address please get it to me so i can write him.
well as for me and how i have been doing, or what we have been doing. things are going well, we have just been doing lots and lots of tracting. we have only a handful of investigators but they haven't been around or there are but we just haven't been able to get in touch with them. i still haven't even met some of the people that they were working with last transfer just because everytime we try by they are gone. so i hope that sometime this week we will be able to sit down and teach some people. that little 9 year old girl and her family were out of town last week (they took a vacation with the long weekend) so we weren't able to visit with them, but we have an apt on friday to teach them so i bet things will go well then and we will be able to set a day that she is going to want to be baptized. Elder Harmon has 3 weeks left so he has his moments when he gets a tad bit trunky (thinking about home) but it isn't near as bad as it was with the one companion i served with while in highlands ranch Elder Fauvell! haha but Elder Harmon and i get along well and i know i am learning things from him that i have needed work on and im sure it's the same way with him. we had another district meeting yesterday and everyone said i did a great job with it, although i dont really think so but hey whatever if other people like it than it's all good. ha :) so on Friday we have a leadership training at the mission home, where it's just the zone leaders and district leaders so it will be good we get a little more time to be trained by President Christison so i'm excited for that. then on saturday morning at 8 Elder Perry will come to one of the stake centers and all the missionaries on the metro side will meet there and he will talk with us for two hours, then he has to be on his way. but i think it will be great, i cant wait to be that close with an Apostle and him speaking to such a small crowd. i guess he is the oldest of The 12... but i do hope this week we are able to get a lot more done than just tracting, dont get me wrong tracting isn't terrible but it definitely isn't my favorite thing to do as a missionary so maybe we will get to teach people.
well i better get going now, thank y'all for everything that you do. things are going well for me and i hope things continue to go well for all of you! i miss you all and cant wait to hear back from you! keep in touch! miss n love you!!
Friday, February 12, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Well i am getting adjusted back to the city life and i keep remembering how much i dont like it, ha and what i mean by that is everything is so fast pasted and people dont even give you the time of day to wave back at you when you wave or if you say hi to someone in the store they just look at you weird and walk on by. Out in Paonia and home whether you knew someone or not everyone would say hi to eachother and was just as friendly as can be. We have been doing tons and tons of tracting in this area, the ward seems to be like a nice ward but they dont do too much to help out with the missionary work in the area so we are having to try and find lots of people. Which reminds me on Sunday we found out that there is this 9 year old girl that hasn't been baptized yet for some reason and her family is starting to get active again so we are going to teach her and get her baptized hopefully within the next 2-3 weeks! :) so we are way excited about that. Elder Krawczyk or Bryan now i guess came back into the mission because someone he baptized last year was getting sealed in the temple so he came back for that and the family that he stayed with while he was here is in the area next to mine so he took us out to lunch and then we went over to there house one night when they were having a little get together, it was so awesome being able to see him again! that guy has still probably been the missionary who has had the biggest influence on me. just cuz he knew how to have fun and get the work done doing it. We had zone confrence on monday and we didn't get to gave interviews this time which stinks but i guess it's for a good reason, we didn't have them because President Christison has been so busy trying to get things set up for when Elder L. Tom Perry comes to the mission on the 20th of this month! haha i am so excited for that to happen! :) a member of the Quorum of the Tweleve or however you spell that but its pretty neat i think! so i think it was like on thursday of last week we were at our apt eating lunch and someone knocked on the door and so Elder Harmon went to the door to answer it and it was a Comcast guy trying to sell us comcast ha and Elder Harmon answered the door and the guy was like are your parents home i started laughing but then we totally turned it around and instead of him trying to sell us somethign for comcast we started to talk to him and teach him about what it is that we do and so i thought that was a pretty funny story. we got snow here on monday but now the road have cleared up and it is in the 30's probably so it isn't too warm or too cold, what has the weather been like back home? You asked if i was in a car or if i was on a bike again, well neither of them actually haha i am walking again, because we should be biking around but Elder Harmon doesn't have his bike anymore it broke awhile back and he borrowed one from a member and the darn chain broke on it and he doesn't want to spend the money to fix it since he is going home in 4 weeks and he'd rather walk anyways so i've been walking a lot and yes i know i am getting fat! :( ha i bought a jump rope and plan to try and get that problem fixed so we'll see how it goes! :) the members feed us every night. but we do have to buy our own groceries unlike in Paonia when the Van Vleets bought everything for us!
thank you for the letters and continous support you give to me. oh and tomorrow is the 11th so that is exactly 365 days 'til i'll be home! :) lol so you can start the countdown! :) i miss you and love you!!! :) bye bye
Love, Elder Anderson
thank you for the letters and continous support you give to me. oh and tomorrow is the 11th so that is exactly 365 days 'til i'll be home! :) lol so you can start the countdown! :) i miss you and love you!!! :) bye bye
Love, Elder Anderson
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
how is everyone holding up? i hope that things are going good for everyone. i have been doing ok for the most part, but i have been keeping an upbeat tempo and i really enjoyed the temple today, it is amazing the sweet calm spirit that is in the temple everytime you go. thank you so much for calling President Christison and letting him know, he called me monday night and when i looked at the phone and saw it was the mission home i knew exactly what it was, but i have been trying to prepare myself for the phone call for the past couple weeks because i knew it would happen. i got choked up still talking with President Christison but he is such a great guy and honestly feels for each one of his missionaries he made sure to come up to me today at the temple and give me a big hug and let me know that his prayers are with the family and that he loves me. i then thanked him again for giving me the opportunity to call Grandma and talk to her. i hope that everyone is doing as good as can be expected and turns to the Lord for the support and strength you might need to get through a hard time like this. i know that Grandma is in a better place and i'm sure she is lots happier where she is now being back with grandpa. i love them so much, i actually sent a letter out monday morning that i wrote sunday evening and part of me told me that she wouldn't get it in time, so when it comes to her house you can open it and read it or do whatever you want with it, but dont throw it away please. i'm so happy that everyone is pitching in and taking care of everything thank you so much. and yes you are right i so badly wish i could be there to help take care of things and to be there for the family, but i think the best thing i could do is continue to serve and allow the family to recieve the blessings from my service. let everyone know of my love for them and that my thoughts are with them. i want to tell you a little bit about my week. but it sounds like the service will be good. Dad i love you and know that Grandma loved you as well, stay strong and continue to push on.
As for my week umm well i give you an update as to what has been happening. I assume you got my new address since you are sending me something, i cant wait to get it! :) it has been like over a week since i last got a letter from anyone! haha i think thats the longest it's been on my mission.. which i'm not complaining but i'm grateful for the wonderful support in which i've had so far. so yeah i am a district leader and we had a district meeting on tuesday and i thought it went really well, i pretty much just call my district everynight to see how they are doing and how there day went. i just watch over them and they turn to me if they need help with something. i also assign trainings for them to give at district meetings. it's not too bad so far haha. oh Elder Allred is in my district haha kind of funny, but we get along great and i think we are actually going to go play football for p-day today! :) so my comp is Elder Harmon and he is from Ririe Idaho lol it's a small town just south of Rexburg i actually have driven through it once. but anyways this is his last transfer and i am senior companion, he is a nice guy and is actually a cancer survivor... he had lukimia when he was like 11-13 so that is pretty neat, he is a bit odd but hey who isn't right!? ha i know i am!!! the area i am in is calld Hampden HIlls the p is silent. but it's just another city area and i'm not too big of a fan of it but whatever there is some reason i am here. i sure do miss Paonia though, so yeah that is pretty much my week and how things have been going...
i love you all so much and am ever so grateful for all that you do for me! i'll do my best to keep in touch and let you know how things are. i miss you bunches! i love you i love you i love you! Families can be Together Forever Through Heavenly Fathers Plan! :) i always want to be with my own family, and the Lord has shown me how i can! :) i love yoU!!!! bye bye
love Elder Randy Anderson
As for my week umm well i give you an update as to what has been happening. I assume you got my new address since you are sending me something, i cant wait to get it! :) it has been like over a week since i last got a letter from anyone! haha i think thats the longest it's been on my mission.. which i'm not complaining but i'm grateful for the wonderful support in which i've had so far. so yeah i am a district leader and we had a district meeting on tuesday and i thought it went really well, i pretty much just call my district everynight to see how they are doing and how there day went. i just watch over them and they turn to me if they need help with something. i also assign trainings for them to give at district meetings. it's not too bad so far haha. oh Elder Allred is in my district haha kind of funny, but we get along great and i think we are actually going to go play football for p-day today! :) so my comp is Elder Harmon and he is from Ririe Idaho lol it's a small town just south of Rexburg i actually have driven through it once. but anyways this is his last transfer and i am senior companion, he is a nice guy and is actually a cancer survivor... he had lukimia when he was like 11-13 so that is pretty neat, he is a bit odd but hey who isn't right!? ha i know i am!!! the area i am in is calld Hampden HIlls the p is silent. but it's just another city area and i'm not too big of a fan of it but whatever there is some reason i am here. i sure do miss Paonia though, so yeah that is pretty much my week and how things have been going...
i love you all so much and am ever so grateful for all that you do for me! i'll do my best to keep in touch and let you know how things are. i miss you bunches! i love you i love you i love you! Families can be Together Forever Through Heavenly Fathers Plan! :) i always want to be with my own family, and the Lord has shown me how i can! :) i love yoU!!!! bye bye
love Elder Randy Anderson
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