Blog Archives - Adventures of Elder Anderson x2

Gift of Tongues & Gift of Signs

10/31/2016

Mom and dad,
This week went by so so fast I couldn't believe it! We had a zone conference and it was great to see Elder Rodabough and the NEW assistant Elder Payan my other companion! They spoil me!!

I told Rodabough and Payan about my struggle with spanish and with the comments that everyone makes. They really helped me think of the gifts that I do have. The gift of making everyone happy no matter what. The gift of humility. The gift of knowing how to have fun while being obedient. And the gift of the Holy Ghost. It made me feel great about how I'm doing and how I'm growing. Sometimes its just better, no matter how hard it is, to think of the blessings you have received in your life rather then blessings that we want but we can't control. We can't control the will of God! All we need to do is have patience.

This week was great teaching MDC. We watched the 20 min video of the restoration in spanish AND in sign language for her daughter Dora. The sprit always is there testifying that Joseph really saw two personages- the Father and the Son. I'm learning a ton of sign language and its hilarious but its coming along. Gift of tongues and the gift of signs!! HAHA!!!

Sunday was great and difficult! MDC got confirmed and it was great! BUT J and S didn't. They were sick so they didn't come. It was tough but there is always this next sunday. Oh well! All we can do is do our part and let the Lord do the rest.

Today as a district activity we climbed Cerro De La Silla! OH IT WAS COOL!!!!!!!!!! It was the coolest thing I have ever done in my life. It was so SICK and you could see everything - ALL of Monterrey and even more! We had a ton of fun as a district and also the hike was so so hard my legs were shaking after. Haha! I have the coolest photos I'll send to you.

I'M SO PROUD OF MY COWBOYS! They must be doing a heck of a job! You all know why they are doing so good??..... cuz I'm on my mission! GO COWBOYS!

With my package I would love a ZEEK t-shirt jersey. Also I would love SEEDS and another mini basketball hoop becuase it broke while Elder Rodabough and I were playing hard core! I would love NEW PHOTOS to see everyone again! ALSO another stockton tie or a cowboys tie! Just some things that I was thinking BUT I will love whatever I receive.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I hope everything goes well tonight for your dance party.

I love you guys so much! Congrats Sydney for getting the makeup job- you're going to do great grease monkey! I really would love Alaska to be honest! I'm dying to be back on the river BUT if you really want to we can think of something to do together with the whole family but I do have FLY FEVER!

"When you have ears to hear... eyes to see... and hearts to feel... you can reach out and help others"
Thomas S. Monson

Elder Carson Anderson
Mexico Monterrey West Mission

Tres Baptisms!!

10/24/2016

I gave my tie to this boy who will be baptized.

Mom and Dad,
This week was great! First off -my companion is awesome! We get along great and work hard! Not alot of things happened this week but we prepared 3 people to get baptized! We visited them and helped them with last questions and they all seem super happy for this day. I baptized 2 people and my comp did 1. It was a great experience. They were all so happy after and felt like they were reunited as a family! I pray that the ward does everything to help these new members of the church! President McArthur and his wife showed up randomly to be at our baptisms! It was great to see him and his support!

How was your trip mom? What did you do? Was the weather good? AND DAD -how was your Birthday? What did you do?

READ Mormon 7: 8-9, it talks about how the Book of Mormon and the Bible work as ONE and how we should read both DAILY! I invite you all to read 5 min of the bible and 5 of the Book of Mormon each day!

I would love it if you could send me CANDY CORN and sunflower seeds and MOUNTAIN DEW! I would love you forever!!

I love you so much! Sorry I don't have alot to say. Next week there will be more! Glad everyone is doing great!
GO COWBOYS
GO JAZZ
GO AGGIES
root for them while I'm gone!

Elder Carson Anderson
Mexico Monterrey West Mission

I Sang a Duet with my Comp

10/24/2016

Hey it was a cool week. We worked alot with the members this week. We are trying to help them get more invloved in the Missionary Work. I know the ward will see success if we all work together.

So this past week we saw G and he should be baptized in a few weeks. He came to church again and he's bien animado (excited) to keep learning. He asked for a priesthood blessing after church so my comp and I with the obispado gave him a blessing.

We also saw E and she had a few doubts about baptism for the dead but she will understand it. She believes that her faith will save her kids and her grandkids and their kids but it doesn't really work like that...haha. Salvation is individual. That's why its such a huge blessing to do baptisms for the dead because there are spirits right now waiting for us to go to the temple to do their baptism and then after with their agency they can accept it or not. It would be much easier to believe that our faith will save our kids but that's not the case.

Well yesterday in church was the Primary Program and there are like NO kids!! So last second they ask us to join them and then me and my comp had to SING A DUET!! HAHAHA!!! I doubt it sounded good but anyways - it was fun.

Ok well I love you all!!

Elder Cody Anderson
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

I CAN do it!!

10/17/2016

I miss toast so I bought a toaster!

Mom and dad!
This week was great! The week started with a bang! All night people lit fireworks and they were so strong I was dying to go see what kind they were! I'm so buying some when I leave to go home! (MOM is saying NO-this won't happen!) It shook my apartment!! It was amazing!

MDC is just awesome! She will do anything to go to church AND... she gets baptized next week! We will see how it goes. Also her daughter and her grand-daughter listen to us. The cool part is, is that the daughter has been deaf for about 15 years. The grand-daughter does sign language when we teach her. It's pretty cool and I try to do it sometimes but then I start laughing because its HORRIBLE! Most of the time I try to make some stuff up like the Napoleon Dynamite dove hands -HAHAHA!!!

Also J. and S. came to church and have a baptism NEXT WEEK also! We could have 3 baptisms. I'm super happy about that. They are progressing well and they like going to church!

We had interviews with President McArthur and all he could say was how proud he was of how I'm doing with being a district leader. He says I'm doing fantastic job. He said he remembers his first interviews with me and I kept saying I CAN'T..I CAN'T DO IT!! But now he is trusting me in a position that is important and it feels easy for me! It truly does! I love helping and giving advice!

One night we were walking down to our house and it was like 8:30 BUT we were so far away from the house! We passed by a park and I saw a mom and her daughter on the swings. I felt the need to go and talk with her but I ignored it. Another feeling came and I ignored it. I was tired OK! Then I asked in my mind IF I should go. Then I knew for sure that I needed to go. We talked with her and she was very nice. She likes listening to us and our message. We taught why we are here on the earth and how we recieve true happiness. She accepted another appointment! It was great to see that no matter what the situation is the Lord will prepare a way! ALWAYS trust in the spirit! After this we were wating in the road to cross and we finally did BUT 5 seconds after there was a car crash in the exact same spot we were standing. Pretty crazy! He watches out for us everyday IF we are obedient!

I can't tell you how excited I was to hear that Green Bay lost to the Cowboys and how good our rookies are! I'm so happy!!! In the morning I was eating tacos with my comp and I saw on a newspaper on the table that the cowboys won! I stood up so excited and just walked around just happy!! I came back to my tacos and they were gone....:(😭

Well... we had changes today! I stayed in my area and I'm still DL. I have a new companion, Elder Critchfield. He is from Murray Utah. He just barely finished his training. He is super cool and I'm very excited to work with him.

I love you so much! You are the best people in the world! Have fun in San Diego mom!

Elder Carson Anderson
Mexico Monterrey West Mission

This is all soooo true!!

10/17/2016

Hey- this week wasn't too interesting. We didn't have much success finding people. It was tough but I'm doing what I've been called to do and that's all that matters.

We have been teaching E. and she said she would be baptized when God tells her. She is slowly realizing the feelings she feels as she reads the Book of Mormon. If she continues she will know for herself that they are coming from God. We watched the Restoration Movie with her and it was cool. That movie is always a testimony strengthener. She loves her family so I think we will be talking about temples this week. It will be cool.

We also have found this guy named G. He is like 40 something but had a stroke. He can't really walk too well at all (so he can't run away from us Mormons haha!! Just kidding) He is an awesome man!! He is understanding everything sooo well and the most crazy thing that has happened is that we gave him The Book of Mormon last week and now he is in Ether! In a whole week he has almost finished the Book of Mormon. He came to church with us yesterday and it was cool to have him there.

We had a lesson with a really cool guy but he just could not believe we do work for the dead and he started to laugh. We helped him realize how its real doctrine. We shared with him scriptures about Jesus teaching the spirits after his crucifixion. We showed him the scripture about baptism for the dead en Cornitios. The man believed that spirits couldn't think or talk or learn, so then we showed him the story about how on The Mount of Transfiguration Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Christ and a few of the Apostles. Moses and Elijah had been dead for years and were spirits but could still talk and think. For that reason the Gospel is still preached to the spirits so they may still have a chance to exercise their agency and accept Gods plan not only here in this life but also the next. He really liked this plan that God has. He is a really good guy he just has read so much garbage on the Internet about the Church. The internet can destroy your faith if you aren't careful. 5 years ago in this ward 1 family left the church and told 4 other families what they read and they all left too. It's honestly really sad. This is all soo true!!

OK - well love you all and Go Cowboys!

Elder Cody Anderson
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Here mom -- this is the only picture I took this week! HAHA!!

Struggling to teach in ENGLISH??

10/11/2016

Inside joke...

Hey it was a cool week! I got my new companion Elder Herrera and we have been good friends throughout the mission. We actually sat next to each other on the plane to get to PR. He has a terrible english accent and is always singing Bon Jovi - Its my life. Also Bring Me to Life by Evanescence and In The End by Linkin Park haha!! I will try to get a video.

Saturday I had an exchange with Elder Durkin from Las Vegas. He's cool and his brother in law is the owner of the skate brand called NEFF. I thought that was sick. Maybe he will hook me up with some Gnar gear after the mish. But anyways we had a really good day. We found this one lady named L. that was happy to see us. She said she helps her daughter with Girl Scouts and she was suprised that both of us were Eagle Scouts!! haha but we taught her about the importance of families and how the Restoration is a key part in the success of a family. Then we found this one lady named M. She would rather have us teach in English so believe it or not we were struggling teaching in English. I don't get why but it just happens. She really wants to follow God so we invited her to be baptized if God told her and then she accepted. If she goes to Church and prays and reads the BOM she will get her answer. We then taught Eladio. .He is a recent convert about 10 months ago. He is really awesome! We are helping him prepare to enter the temple. His mother died about 2 weeks ago so he is excited to do the work for her. We then found the family that we thought were members just yanking our chain but it turns out - they aren't members. The problem is that the husband is alwaaaaayys working and its hard to get the family together.

So yesterday we had a mission-wide meeting. It was at 7 am and we live like a little more than 2 hours away from where it was going to be held. So President had us leave Sunday night to sleepover in another house of Elders that was closer to the meeting. It was cool! Elder Belleza, Elder Wayman, Elder Chinchilla and Elder Nunez were there. I had no bed so I had to improvise.

The meeting was a big testimony meeting about our experience in Conference. I decided to share what question I had. My question was how I can keep being a disciple of Jesus Christ after the mission and I shared the story that Elder Holland told us about how the lady's house was filled with water and the home teachers come at the perfect time but then say that she looks busy and they will come by another day. hahaha!! That is an example of what we SHOULDN'T do so I learned I can help and serve people doing my home teaching. It was a funny story though.

Ok well Love you all
Peace out!!

Elder Cody Anderson
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Doing Small Things = Big Blessings

10/10/2016

I was gonna slap a bull but it didn't work out!

Mom and Dad,
HEY! This week was super great. I had alot of fun but also its been so tough because alot of my investigators are going to church but so hard to find during the week! That is so wierd because usually its the other way around!

V my investigator got baptized yesterday! It was great to see her brother baptize her! She said that she had said no to alot of missionaries but now it was a perfect time for her. I truly believe God has a time and a place and a perfect plan for each and everyone of us.

I went on divisions with Elder White! He only has 2 months in the mission and is killing it out here. I told him that I have regrets with my first 5 months and I told him to never be like me and sad during this time. WORK and SERVE and all will go well!

I went on divisions with my Zone leaders and it was super fun! we taught alot of people and also sang Def Leppard the whole time haha! I'M SO HAPPY on how the Cowboys are playing! I love the new lineup! I knew ZEEK was going to be amazing but this QB- I never new he could help us get to 4-1! I'm smelling super bowl - and how are the Utah Jazz? Any news on them?

Congrats for Valerie! I bet that was cool to see her finish with honor. I bet Shane and Tricia were excited and also the kids.

Well... I don't have much to say. I'm just super busy and just keep doing the small things to receive bigger blessings!! AMEN.

LOVE YOU MY CRAZY FAMILY

Elder Carson Anderson
Mexico Monterrey West Mission

Conference in Puerto Rico

10/4/2016

Wooowww Conference weekend was sick! Lots of themes I think. Prayers, Plan of Salvation and Repentance. I really really loved lots of talks. Elder Uchtdorfs talk in the Priesthood Session was one that just made me really happy. haha and Elder Renlunds talk about the firecracker going off was funny. When he said he felt bad and didn't partake of the sacrament, I was thinking about all the CRAZIER and MORE INSANE THINGS I did with fireworks hahaha!!! If he felt bad about that I definelty need to change! haha

So we got transfer calls last night and I will be staying but my comp Elder Zamora will be leaving to Fajardo. I will be getting a new comp and he is Elder Herrera de Mexico. We are good friends also. I don't think I will have any problem with companions in my mission cause I have gotten along well and met almost all the missionaries.

So I think I told you about the Lady we found the other week. Well she has been really cool and has potential. She is very dedicated to her church but invited us in. We had a great lesson about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We came back to see her another day and she has been reading sooo much and actually understands the importance of the Book of Mormon. She was telling her son about us and he was against it but she was telling him that "Its not like I'm gonna go and be Mormon but these Mormons also believe in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and that the other book that they have isn't replacing the Bible but its more scripture about Jesus Christ". She has been asking us to pray for her so that she may know if this really is true and that God can give her an Answer. If you can all Put Ester M. in your prayers that she can recieve and answer from God that would help alot. You can all do a little bit of Missionary work and Pray to help her.

General Conference is just a spiritual boost and it just gives us all another confirmation that its all true...not just because most of us all grew up learning it all our lives but the spiritual confirmation is the key we recieve tells us that its true. As I was watching conference I felt so happy that I have had this time to serve here in Puerto Rico. I wouldnt want it any other way. Time is flying by sooo fast and I'm kinda nervous to come home!

Love you all!!

Elder Cody Anderson
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Conference in Monterrey

10/3/2016

Mom and Dad,
This week was amazing! I felt like this week went by wicked fast. I worked super hard in the rain this week to find people to come to conference. We had 7 investigators in church! It was amazing and I was proud of my companion and myself to help people hear God's message! (the promise from Mr. Burt WILL come true!)

This week we found a girl named Y. ....ROMO! Yep, Y. Romo! It was sick! She has had alot of problems in her life and wants to change her life for good! We talked to her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and baptism and she accepted! She came to church too and loved it! I just think its sweet her last name is ROMO! (GO COWBOYS! - so glad they beat the niners! Sounds like the new group looks great! I hope they keep it up!)

V is ready to be baptized next Sunday! What a great miracle we have found as a companionship. She has a testimony of the true restored gospel and how this will bless her life forever. It was great to see the progress and how her faith has grown. I'll be sure to tell you how the services will go!

Conference and the messages were great! I felt like I have learned a lot about the healing power of the atonement this general conference. Alot of the speakers spoke about how we need faith in Jesus Christ. Also I loved the question that Bednar asked -Do we know about Jesus Christ OR do we KNOW Jesus Christ? I think that is a great question we can all say to ourselves and pray about how we can grow our relationship with our Savior.

I'm doing great! Thank you for the support! I miss you guys a ton and I pray for you guys everyday. Pray for the people to open their hearts and listen to this message.

Elder Carson Anderson
Mexico Monterrey West Mission

Elder Cody W. Anderson
SAN JUAN PUERTO RICO MISSION
cody.anderson@myldsmail.net

Puerto Rico San Juan Mission
Urb. Jardines de Caparra
#500 Calle Marginal Norte
Bayamon PR 00959
Puerto Rico

Elder Carson R Anderson
MEXICO MONTERREY WEST MISSION
carson.anderson@myldsmail.net

Mexico Monterrey West Mission
Calle Chiapas y Concha Espino # 303
Col. Roma Sur
64700 Monterrey, Nuevo Leon
Mexico

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