That's pretty crazy that y'all got that information this past week, that means that i must be getting mine some time this week. like you said it is weird to think that it is actually time, i cant believe that i go to Seattle from Denver and then back to Pasco haha i'm going to fly over Pasco on the way to Seattle. Too bad i cant parachute out of the plane flying over home haha. but i'm sure my letter will come this week telling me all about it like the one you got.
so you said that i'm on for the 13th to speak in church, that should be pretty sweet and i still am speaking for 20 minutes about whatever i want right? matt gets home the 18th so 9 days after me which is way crazy! ha and that would be fun for us to do a fireside i think. i still cant believe how fast all of this is coming, it doesn't seem real and i'm excited to come home but nervous at the same time ya know?
Dad, I love your hair cut, i didn't think you would do it that quick, it looks awesome and i cant wait to come home and see you and the family! y'all have been such blessings to me in my life and i know i wouldn't be out here on my mission helping so many other people if it weren't for you. i know that Jesus Christ lives, that He loves all the same and that He came to this earth to atone for our sins, He's paid the price all we have to do is repent and become cleansed and we've been promised eternal life which is one of the greatest gifts of God, and there we can life as families together. i know this is Christs church here upon thee earth and that we have a living Prophet who leads and guides it. The power of prayer is real, i love prayer and know that God answers prayers and He answers everyones prayer if we pray with faith and real intent which means we are willing to act on the answer we recieve. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is real and i have truly enjoyed being in the service of the Lord these past 2 years. i love you all so much!
So i found out yesterday that i'm speaking in church this up coming week, my comp and i are speaking with one of the members of the mission Presidency so it wont be to bad with 3 speakers i think they asked me to speak for 10-12 minutes. which will be nice because it will help prepare me for my homecoming talk. this past sunday we had a good turn out at church and even though it went down a couple from the previous weeks i'm counting on it being over 80 my last few weeks. we have been seeing progress with people that we are working with and so i know they'll be coming out here real soon.
i have loved being able to serve in the Parachute area and i'm going to miss it so much when i leave, the members are awesome and help us out with everything we need. i hope to be that great of help to the missionaries once i get home. We were able to teach primary yesterday because one of the teachers didn't show up and it was pretty fun, except there were 2 kids that kept talking to eachother and they were distracting the rest of the class.. ha it made me think back to when i was in primary or even sunday school as a youth and i thought of how big of a pain i must have been to my teachers. i should apologize to them. ha..
Well i had my last zone confrence this past friday and was able to say good bye to some good friends of mine. i hope i'll be able to see them at some point down the road. We were trainned on how to find more people to teach and the different ways. it was interesting but i feel like i have heard all of that stuff we covered at least 2 other times on my mission, it was still great though.
well thanks for the email and all the news i hope y'all are doing well and have a great week! i'm doing well and cant wait to see you! miss you so much and love you!
love Randy
Monday, January 10, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
yetserday we had 76 people turn out so just a couple less than we did last week which kind of stinks but a couple people were still out of town for the break because people dont start school until tomorrow down here. we need 80 people for a constant while for them to start building a building so i'm sure it will happen here within the next two years there will be a nice full size building in Parachute which will be sweet to go back and visit and see how much everything has grown!
we found a new investigator this past week. it was Pauline and Brittanys friend, she had heard that she was visiting with the mormon missionaries and so she told them that she wanted to sit in and listen as well. we were way excited when we heard it. you never know how or where you can find people to teach that's why you always need to be looking for people and opportunities whether it's actually talking with people of just being an example everywhere you go. we hope good things come of this.
We had quite a few people show up this past sunday that normally dont show up and that didn't show up last week so that was awesome. i get really excited when i see people pull up that we have been trying to work with it just makes my day!
i know this is a pretty short email but i feel like there isn't a whole lot to talk about so i'll just hear from ya next week and then talk with ya in 37 days! lol so crazy to think about. but i hope that school and work go well with everyone starting it back up. thanks for all you do and i'm looking forward to getting the pictures soon. i love you all and cant wait to see you! :)
love Randy
we found a new investigator this past week. it was Pauline and Brittanys friend, she had heard that she was visiting with the mormon missionaries and so she told them that she wanted to sit in and listen as well. we were way excited when we heard it. you never know how or where you can find people to teach that's why you always need to be looking for people and opportunities whether it's actually talking with people of just being an example everywhere you go. we hope good things come of this.
We had quite a few people show up this past sunday that normally dont show up and that didn't show up last week so that was awesome. i get really excited when i see people pull up that we have been trying to work with it just makes my day!
i know this is a pretty short email but i feel like there isn't a whole lot to talk about so i'll just hear from ya next week and then talk with ya in 37 days! lol so crazy to think about. but i hope that school and work go well with everyone starting it back up. thanks for all you do and i'm looking forward to getting the pictures soon. i love you all and cant wait to see you! :)
love Randy
Saturday, January 1, 2011
December 27, 2010
yesterday at church we had 79 people there which was awesome i thought it was a great turn out and we had people out of town so next week should be about the same. there was lots of people that haven't been to church in a long time that showed up so it was good to see them. it was really exciting seeing some of the inactives we are working with come. i was able to say the first prayer in the first sacrament meeting in the Parachute Branch! lol so i'm going down in history with that! ha not much though huh? all we had yesterday was the sacrament meeting because they haven't finished extending all of the callings and organizing things so this next week will be all 3 meetings. other than that not too much has happened, but i'm sure more things will happen by next week when i email.
oh and i am staying here in Parachute with Elder Castro for my last transfer! The Larsens told me that they would take me from here to Denver when it's time for me to head back. So in 42 days from today i'll be heading over to Denver to spend my last 2 days there then in 44 days i'll be seeing y'all! :) cant wait... i hope y'all have a great rest of your trip and you enjoy your time down there. everyone have fun snowmobiling for me! :( ha miss you and love you!!!
love Randy
oh and i am staying here in Parachute with Elder Castro for my last transfer! The Larsens told me that they would take me from here to Denver when it's time for me to head back. So in 42 days from today i'll be heading over to Denver to spend my last 2 days there then in 44 days i'll be seeing y'all! :) cant wait... i hope y'all have a great rest of your trip and you enjoy your time down there. everyone have fun snowmobiling for me! :( ha miss you and love you!!!
love Randy
December 18, 2010
Well this week is going to be exciting i hope there are people around for us to talk to, it seems like lots of people are heading out of town for Christmas. Christmas Eve we have 2 meals lined up and we are going caroling then we are going to another families home to read the Christmas story and hang out and eat goodies so it should be fun.
then on Christmas day we'll do the normal thing and then at noon we are going to go to Rifle to play some football and then take off from there up to Glenwood to go to the Larsen's and I'm sure we'll stay there the rest of the day and that's where i call y'all from. so i doubt I'll all before 2, just a heads up. oh and we are in the same time zone since your in Idaho. so just have you're phone by you from 2 on.
we didn't have any investigators show up to church yesterday which really sucked but I'm hoping that with the branch opening this next week that we'll get a lot more people out. we've been going through the ward list again telling everyone about it opening up this week because when we went through the first time we weren't sure when it would open. it will be weird having so few people in the branch but it will grow as time moves on!
we we're able to do quite a bit of tracting this past week and got lots of potential investigators but it seems like they are just telling us to come back to be nice to us, which stinks i just wish people would be honest with us the first time they talk to us. because it's really frustrating when you go back to a door after someone told you to come back and then you go back and they say no they don't want to talk to us. we've been working really hard with the in-actives as well but are seeing little progress which also can get kind of frustrating. i love being able to worry only about helping other people but at the same time it is hard when you try so hard to help them but they put forth such little effort on their part ya know?
on a happier note it has been great in my studies this past little while to focus on the life of our Savior and all He has done for us! Let us all remember the true meaning of Christmas and why it is we celebrate it. Jesus Christ came into this world to fulfill His mission to organize His church and to Atone for our sins so that we might be able to apply the Atonement and the Gospel principles and ordinances into our lives so when the time comes we will be able to return to live with Him and our Father In Heaven. This is a great time of year and i am so grateful for my Savior and the many blessings He has and does continue to give to me!
Cant wait to talk with y'all on Saturday have a great week and be safe! miss you and love you!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
love Randy
then on Christmas day we'll do the normal thing and then at noon we are going to go to Rifle to play some football and then take off from there up to Glenwood to go to the Larsen's and I'm sure we'll stay there the rest of the day and that's where i call y'all from. so i doubt I'll all before 2, just a heads up. oh and we are in the same time zone since your in Idaho. so just have you're phone by you from 2 on.
we didn't have any investigators show up to church yesterday which really sucked but I'm hoping that with the branch opening this next week that we'll get a lot more people out. we've been going through the ward list again telling everyone about it opening up this week because when we went through the first time we weren't sure when it would open. it will be weird having so few people in the branch but it will grow as time moves on!
we we're able to do quite a bit of tracting this past week and got lots of potential investigators but it seems like they are just telling us to come back to be nice to us, which stinks i just wish people would be honest with us the first time they talk to us. because it's really frustrating when you go back to a door after someone told you to come back and then you go back and they say no they don't want to talk to us. we've been working really hard with the in-actives as well but are seeing little progress which also can get kind of frustrating. i love being able to worry only about helping other people but at the same time it is hard when you try so hard to help them but they put forth such little effort on their part ya know?
on a happier note it has been great in my studies this past little while to focus on the life of our Savior and all He has done for us! Let us all remember the true meaning of Christmas and why it is we celebrate it. Jesus Christ came into this world to fulfill His mission to organize His church and to Atone for our sins so that we might be able to apply the Atonement and the Gospel principles and ordinances into our lives so when the time comes we will be able to return to live with Him and our Father In Heaven. This is a great time of year and i am so grateful for my Savior and the many blessings He has and does continue to give to me!
Cant wait to talk with y'all on Saturday have a great week and be safe! miss you and love you!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
love Randy
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
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’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
Monday, December 13, 2010
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
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
Monday, December 6, 2010
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
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
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