Blog Archives

God Be With Him Til We Meet Again

1/25/2016

Maria and Kaleth are ready for baptism! they are so awesome and they cant wait! Kaleth and Maria wear their CTR rings everyday. They say that my testimony was a huge part in bringing them closer to this church and finding the true and only church in the world! It made me feel like I was doing my job! Please pray that everything goes well with these two.

We went to the Monterrey temple today so thats why we couldn’t write on Monday! It was great to finally get my mind off of things and to think about things that are good and have good meaning to them! It is a very small temple but very beautiful! It was all in spanish and guess what? I could understand all of it pretty well!

We went and visited Jose Elias. He wasn’t there but his family was. We talked about the restoration and about Joseph Smith and answered all of their questions. After the lesson one of the daughters asked, “When is church and how can i get there?” She came to church!! Jose’s family said they have seen a huge change in their father since we started teaching him. They say that he can’t go to bed without reading the Book of Mormon or praying! Its pretty awesome! Even if I don’t baptize them I have seen a change in a family like I have never seen before in my life! He just smiles all of the time whenever we come!

This is funny — there are police trucks with policemen with AR15s driving around! Well... yesterday we saw one of our investigators in the back. Soooo ya ..... looks like we are not teaching him for a while! God be with him till we meet again!! Haha!!

I finally got my packages!! The one from Kyra and the book and letters from you! THANK YOU so MUCH!!

I love you guys so so much! I hope you have a great week! Tell everyone I say hi!

Elder Carson Anderson
Mexico Monterrey West Mission

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Vamos a Ver

1/25/2016

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Stake Patriarch

Yesterday we got the call about transfers and I’m staying in Guayanilla with the same companion. I was kind of hoping I was gonna head out because Guayanilla is small and we have hit almost everything here, BUT we will just hit everything again and maybe they will let us in this time. We did work really hard this last transfer and we taught over 100 lessons. This is really good for Puerto Rico. I remember on the first day in Puerto Rico when we met with President Boucher, he said: “This is not Mexico, this is not Brazil, this is not Peru. This is Puerto Rico and I have seen the hardest working missionaries go home with 0 baptisms”. I have tried to remember that when we work so hard and nobody listens.

One of our investigators named Alfonso is progressing very well! He is very Catolico but decided to listen to us. The first few visits we talked about the Plan of Salvation and it seemed like he liked it, but he wasn’t keeping his commitments with us in reading the pamphlets we have. A couple of days ago we came back and he said he loved the plan of salvation pamphlet and now he knows why we are here. We then taught the restoration and he understood how the authority was lost and has been restored again by God through the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said he wants to read the Book of Mormon because he knows that is the key to really know that the church has been restored.
We invited him to baptism before and he said that he doesn’t need another one but when we taught the restoration this week we invited him again. He looked down at the Book of Mormon and then said "Vamos a Ver". He understands he needs to find out for himself and that we are not trying to convince him.

Read Amos 3:7 and then 1 Nephi 10:18. He is the same yesterday, today and forever and he works through Prophets. It is clear that we need modern day prophets. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet of God.

I love you all.
Peace Out

Elder Cody Anderson
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

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God Works in Mysterious Ways

1/18/2016

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Hey hey hey
Whats up and happenin' in the LBC?

This week we taught a lot of lessons but not one person showed up to church but oh well, there is always next Sunday.

One of our investigators named Carlos is a Catholic minister. He invited us to come to his radio station and let us preach for 30 min on the radio! I am so pumped for that. We are planning on watching the Restoration movie with him sometime this week. We were supposed to watch it with him last week but I think he was either out of town - or hiding from us.

We were passing by this house and they were bumping "Still Dre" by Dr. Dre and I wanted to contact that house!! They came out and we just started talking to them about this song and others. They thought it was kinda weird hearing a white missionary talk about this music. Then after we are talking about the restoration and they told us we can come back and talk more about the plan of salvation. God works in mysterious ways...maybe God used a Dr. Dre song to get my attention and head over to that house — haha!! I don’t know but it was a cool experience.

We are going to be starting an English class here and hope to find some golden investigators from it. We are also starting a Mission Prep class for the ward. I remember when Rob Smith would always take us to mission prep and I figured it could help the kids that are close to mission age to have a class like I had.

People always look so intimidated and nervous when we are talking with them. We literally have to calm them down and usually they calm down and see we aren’t crazy people. I still don’t know why people are always running from us. Its ridiculous - I mean, I know I’m ugly but I’m not THAT ugly! I still don’t get it and I just want to talk to them and teach them and show them that our message is of Christ and not something out of this world.

I was studying in Preach my Gospel and it was talking about how important this work is. It pumps me up before I go out. I always get pumped to find a family before we head out. It helps me get going and more determined to find the people that are prepared.

I am getting a nice beard coming in now and I WISH I could grow it out!! I used shaving cream for the first time in my life - I wrote about it in my journal. HAHA!!

It is so great to hear from everyone! Please let me know how you are all doing!
Peace out.

Elder Cody Anderson
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

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Feliz Dia de Reyes?

1/12/2016

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Hey - Feliz Dia de Reyes!

Well this Feliz Dia de Reyes is a holiday I had never heard of.

A Catholic Minister which is one of our investigators invited us to his worship service and party after for the holiday. So I have never been to a different church service before but since going to that my testimony that this is the true church just sky rocketed. Carlos is the Catholic Minister and he said he was going to read half of the Book of Mormon by this Friday before our next visit. We are going to watch the Restoration with him this week. I really believe he is going to read with true intent. He doesn’t seem like a guy that is just going to look for bad things.

The family I talked about in my last letter that we found named Samuel and Doren, we were supposed to meet with him yesterday but they got divorced or separated this past week. He called us and said that we can still meet with him. We are going to try to get them back together and with the gospel they can have a happy family. We meet with the husband today - so thats the plan.

Nothing much happened this week because my companion was sick most of the week. It really sucked sitting in the house for that long! But we bumped up our goals for this week even higher to make up for the time we missed so I’m pumped to see how it goes.

I just want to end saying that there is a path to return to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and that is the LDS church. Do everything you can to stay on it or you will regret it!

I love you all so much! Have an awesome week!

Elder Cody Anderson
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

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Guess I Won't Baptize El Chapo

1/12/2016

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Hey mom and dad!

This week was great with our investigators. They all are ready for baptism and we could have a baptism this Sunday!! — so cross your fingers and fold your arms!!

I guess my dream of baptizing El Chapo will have to wait since he was caught and is now back in jail.

Maria and Kaleth are doing really good and are progressing in the lessons and reading the Book of Mormon! Maria has a boyfriend and he is taking the lessons too. Watching a little boy and his mom teach the plan of salvation to thier father is amazing - especially in the short time that they had learned it themselves. I truly feel like this is why I had to come to Monterrey was to find them and bring this family the gospel!

Every day is another day to just meet really interesting and funny people. One day we met a hobo with a bicycle named Roberto! He is one crazy dude and keeps saying that he is a member of our church! He will talk to us about truths of the gospel …that are NOT correct. Then he pulled out of his backpack a Tecate can and gave it to me!! Then immediately starts yelling “POLICIA!! POLICIA!!”

I hope you had a great week! I love you more than anything!

Elder Carson Anderson
Mexico Monterrey West Mission

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WHOA - Hold Up there Tomb Raider

1/6/2016

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Hey mom and dad!

This week was good. So crazy its new years! New years was great with all the fireworks going off and the crazy music playing all night! I didn’t get sleep at all!

This week we taught a lot of lessons! Especially to Maria and Kaleth. They are chosen investigators and that is so awesome. Whats even more amazing is that Maria bore her testimony in church yesterday and it is only her second time in church! It was amazing!

We went to Jose Elias to teach him but he was not there - so we taught his daughter! She is a beautiful latino woman and I have found out that I CANNOT understand beautiful latino women. Haha!! Anyway - she talked about how she was reading the Koran! WHAT?? It was crazy to see that. While we were teaching her I said there are 3 things you need to do — read, pray, and go to church and I know this is difficult for some people…. then she just stopped me and said, “Nothing is difficult for me!” WHOA - hold up there Tomb Raider!! I just replied and said “Well.... then come to church with us this Sunday if its not hard for you!

I love you so much! My family is everything to me. Keep the faith with me. Thanks so much for your thoughts, prayers and your fasting!

Elder Carson Anderson
Mexico Monterrey West Mission

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No Excuses - find Solutions

1/6/2016

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This guy carved into this shell and painted it. Represents all 3 Spanish speaking missions of the Anderson boys.

Happy New Year! The parties here were crazy! Well, not ours- haha. We went to the Bishop’s house until about 9:30. I didn’t stay up because I was so tired! We had to stay indoors because lots of people here bring out their guns for the new year and start poppin' caps.

The fireworks were huge. It reminded me of all the SUPER DUMB (mom capitalized this for emphasis) things I did with fireworks but they were some of the most fun times I had with my buds. I guess you could say I am finding more stupid ways to use fireworks.

So this past week has been so good. We have been working hard with the less actives and getting them to come back to church. Getting people active again in the church is a really cool experience. Baptisms have been hard to get but we will find them. I have been thinking about all the excuses we hear from people here in the mission. Some are reasonable and some are just too funny that you have a hard time not laughing. I KNOW that for every excuse there is a solution. Look past your excuses to follow the Lord and do his will and find the solutions!

There has been a member from Florida here for the past 2 weeks visiting family that he has here. His name is Joel and he took us to each one of his family members houses after church for us to get to know them and to start teaching them! They received us so good and look ready to hear our message. It is always a goal to find families and we have a few to teach now. There is nothing cooler then to teach a family about eternal families.

We have been rocking out hard to the music you sent - haha! The RM Soundtrack reminds me so much of Blink 182 which is super cool. Oh how I wish Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg had some instrumentals.

Random stuff from his Christmas packages

I have been trying to read and study more about how Jesus taught so I can apply that in my teaching. I know it will strengthen me more and more importantly the people we get to teach.

I love you all so much! Peace Out

Elder Cody Anderson
San Juan Puerto Rico Mission

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