Blog Posts - Adventures of Elder Anderson x2

Service with a Machete in Puerto Rico

4/24/2017

Jazz WON!! I've got to admit I have recently put the Utah Jazz in my daily Prayers...especially Rudy Gobert..haha! I think God answered the prayer because I heard he came back to play in Game 4.

We had to drop a family that we have been teaching. They aren't progressing and haven't made efforts to come to church. We will come back in maybe 3 weeks. But they other family we have been teaching is doing alright. The problem with them is that they live far away from the chapel and they don't have a car. We will work hard to find a ride for them. They are reading in the Book of Mormon so that is perfect.

We found a few people this past week. We left BOM's with them and we will see if they progress and actually keep their commitments.

This week we got a call and we were invited to a special meeting with President Gonzales from the Seventy..and also one of the Counselors in the Sunday School quorum....i think its Brian K. Ashton but I can't remember. That is this Saturday in Trujillo Alto.

We did 2 service projects this past week. One of them I had to cut down a tree with a machete! It was cool..if its super sharp it cuts like butter!

Victor has an abandoned house behind our apartement that is haunted!! HAHA!! We went into it last night. It made me remember when Zach Andersen, Hadeen, Carson and I slept in that abandoned hospital.

Well we get transfer calls this Sunday so I'm pretty sure I'm staying here to die. It will be my last transfer in the mission so that's insane to me!!

Love you all peace out!!

Elder Cody Anderson
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Birthday & Baptism in Monterrey

4/18/2017

Mom and Dad -
Well... 21 feels weird!! It was a great birthday. I baptized Jose Angel on my birthday! It was a great service and the members were there to support him. We ate pizza after and the members brought CAKE for my birthday! It was so awesome! Then at night with my comp we celebrated my B-day and our baptism with a RedBull. HAHA!! WooHOO!!
Jose Angel and I have so many things in common. We love the Dallas Cowboys, the same music and movies. I always ask him questions about The Longest Yard the movie and ask if those things really happen in prison. Hahaha!
He got confirmed on Sunday and officially is a member of the church!!

We decided to start over and look for new investigators. We started with the less active list. I felt prompted to look for this family. We ended up going to this direction. A young man came out excited like no other. It was weird! We found out that he had talked with missionaries last week and they told him that the missionaries will be at your house on Friday night. Well we did not get that message at all and we showed up on Saturday night. He said he was prepared for us- water and the seats were ready but we didn't show up! Its because the missionaries that talked to him forgot to pass the reference. But God passed us the reference and he has plans to keep listening to us!

GO JAZZ!!! Thats awesome to hear that they won! Hope Rudy Gobert comes back! He is a great player! If he comes back we can easily beat Clips! With the blessing of my service of course!

I've been craving this weekend a hot tub session! Then you tell me you went to Lava Hot springs... I hate you and you increased my craving.

Well... i love you! Hope you liked my suit! Its pretty dope! Have a great week and Go Jazz!

Elder Carson Anderson
Mexico Monterrey West Mission

Had a Great Birthday in Puerto Rico

4/17/2017

Hey- it was a good week. We kinda had a bad day on Tuesday with our citas falling through but we ended up finding a really cool family. Its a young family with 2 kids. It was a reference from the moms parents. Her parents are getting baptized this week in Juncos. We had a great lesson explaining the restoration and the Book of Mormon. They both said that they feel like what we have said is true and they feel full. That's definitely the Holy Ghost giving them the answer that it is true!!

We had a cool meeting yesterday as a mission. We all went down to Trujillo Alto and had a testimony meeting. It was cool to see all the missionaries. I have made a lot of really good friends in the mission.

Tonight we will see a less active family with a member so lets hope everything goes good and get them back to the truth!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! It was a really good birthday. I spent it working in Aibonito with Elder Jones and we found some cool people. And then I get back to Cayey and Victor Felix has a ton of cupcakes and has a little birthday party so it was super fun!
I love you all! Bye!

Elder Cody Anderson
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

MORMONES!!

4/10/2017

Hey- so we had a very successful week. These past two months we haven't been able to find anyone who was willing to accept a baptismal date. This past week a family of FIVE accepted a baptismal date for the 29th of April. We will see if they prepare themselves and receive their answer from God that its all true.

I went to Caguas to work with Elder Robinson for the day and it was cool. We found 2 really cool families. One of the families were really receptive. We were talking to the wife and then the husband showed up and he screams MORMONES!! haha! We find out he is a less active member - stopped going to church when he was 12. He remembers passing the sacrament as a deacon!

At night we were walking back to our apartment so I could go back to Cayey and we found this dude walking in the street and we gave him a card. He said his brother and his family are members of the church in the Dominican Republic. We started talking about baptism and explained the importance of the keys to baptize. He told us he doesn't know where the keys are. We invited him to be baptized on the 29 of April and he said he would if he knows that this church has the keys - so that was cool!!

We also found another woman. She was talking about polygamy with us. She said that she doesn't know if that was true so that's why she asked us. We cleared everything up with her and she ended up super interested in the Church and the Book of Mormon. We go see her and her family tomorrow. So we will invite her to be baptized also.

Wow! I will be 21 this week!! I'm soo old I can legally drink now-haha. SIKE! Never will do it.
Have a great week!!

Elder Cody Anderson
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Our ZONE is ALIVE!

4/10/2017

Mom and Dad,
Well... This week went super great!! I feel our zone is ALIVE! They have new companions... new goals... new opportunities to be able to achieve our goal as a zone. Each companionship looks happy with their companion and are working a ton better than last change! Sometimes changes are hard but sometimes they are really cool and help alot!

Elder Uc and I are doing great. I feel like I have 10 months again being with him again! We are working great and are finding people to teach! Jose Angel was able to watch conference and he really loved it! He felt that these people that talked to us are from God and believe in the message! Something that happened last week was that President approved for the baptism of Jose Angel. He is very excited and its actually pretty cool... his baptism will be on Friday April 14th! MY BIRTHDAY!! There is no better gift that I can recieve than someone opening the door to salvation! Its going to be cool! We will put on the new Easter video that the church put out so Jose and also the members that will be there will understand the importance of Christ's life. It will be that Holy weekend so it will be meaningful and spiritual!

Awesome photos of the steelhead Dad... and LOTS of snow! I can't imagine crossing that river! I bet it was fast! I'm glad you had fun!

I bought something really cool! I'm going to have to send you a picture but its pretty dope I have to admit! And don't ask me what it is... I won't answer... you will just recieve a random picture! HAHA!!

Well.. I love you!! I hope you're all doing great. Thanks for all the support! I'll talk to you next week when I am 21 years old! YIKES!!!

Elder Carson Anderson
Mexico Monterrey West Mission

Conference in Monterrey

4/4/2017

Elder Anderson & Elder Reed

Mom and Dad,
This week was great! Conference was the best part of the week! I honestly never felt the spirit more in this conference than any other conference in the past! I really felt like it was an answer to my prayers and our prayers. Amazing testimonies of the Plan of Salvation like Weatherford T Claytons testimony about death and how peaceful it was. I was eating a subway sandwich at the time and I stopped eating because I was shocked at the feeling that I had and the feeling in the room that me and Elder Reed felt. (we watched it in the bishops office in english with JA)
Many talks were about repentance and how its necessary for our life. The cool thing about it was that they never talked down to people that have sins and are imperfect. What they did was they talked about how the Lord loves us and he wants us to love him and not fear him. We love him with our actions and there is always time for us to change and like Elder Stevenson said... let your spirit stand up.

This week we have CHANGES! I will be staying in Las Puentes aaaannnndd ELDER UC is my companion AGAIN! AGAIN? Thats so funny! The assitants put their phone on speaker so everyone could here me say... "what the fetch- I was already with him for 2 changes!" Then all of a sudden you heard them just start laughing! Its great though. I'm excited to be with him again!

I hope you have success in Stanley with the BIG FISH dad! Go to Big Ed Island for me! I'm excited to go to Alaska! I'm actually nervous about missing school though! I don't know what is going to happen during the time while were up there - but oh well.

Thank you so much for everything! I love you and I can't wait to see you again! Have a great week and put into practice what we all have learned in conference!

Elder Carson Anderson
Mexico Monterrey West Mission

Last Conference in Puerto Rico

4/3/2017

Wow!! My last conference in the mission was really good. We went up to Caguas to watch it and it was fun chillin with all the other missionaries watching conference. There was a lot of great talks and I learned a lot. I can't write ALL the things I liked from conference but I'll share a few.

Well my comp and I tried really hard to get some investigators to get there but it didn't happen. It would have been cool to have them see Thomas S. Monson and his counsel he gave us. He was looking better this conference than he did last conference!! I loved his talk about being humble and also his other talk of him testifying of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I also love it when the Apostles bear testimony that President Monson is The Prophet called by God.

I really liked the talk focused to the investigators of the church that Elder Costa gave. His conversion story was so great. I'm sure the investigators that listened to that talk will be baptized soon!

I also really liked what Elder Ronald A. Rasband said. It was something like "When we pray and ask God that we are ready to respond. He will give us an opportunity...When we respond to this opportunity he will give us even more opportunities"

I hope conference weekend was all good. My whole life I've basically lived in Utah and I've never been to the Conference Center to see Conference. I want to see a session there!

ok- I love you all!
Elder Cody Anderson
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

You Are Never Out of the Fight

3/28/2017

Mom and Dad,
Right now at this time I am suffering from a freakin nasal infection! I'm dying, but oh well! Sacrifices to write are real!
This week in my Zone many are having trouble with homesickness or other problems. They are not putting out their best that I know they can! And guess what... I know that it happens because I've been there!! So I went to each Elder in the zone last week and we sat down and I told them the things that I did that made me have those setbacks and warned them not to do the same. I also shared with them how I changed drastically. I told them that it was the Lord - it wasn't me - it was my personal Savior. I had a lot of support from family and friends fasting and praying on my behalf that helped alot! I showed them the letter that Jeff wrote me. I had to translate alot and I gave them the invitation that he gave me that changed my mission! So this week I will go AGAIN to verify how they feel still... haha I gave each of them a copy of the quote from Lone Survivor that helped me out alot. "No matter how dark it gets or how far you fall...you are never out of the fight"

Jose Angel is so awesome! He knows more doctrine than me! He truly has a testimony. Its crazy! I've never met anyone like him.

We contacted many people that are interested in learning the gospel. We testified alot about the restoration because pretty much everyone knows the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They just don't know the importance of the restored priesthood to be able to do these ordinances. Its an easy filter. Those who won't accept the restoration will not be able to progress and those who accept it will progress. We need to have a testimony of the restored church. If we don't, we're just as lost as everyone else.

General Conference! The last one. I cannot believe it!! That's so crazy. It is going to be a great conference and I know that the messages from them are from God. So we need to prepare TODAY! Fast and pray for guidance and knowledge to know what we need to do in our home and in our lives! Plus its on April Fools day so I'm just waiting for some jokes from Deeter!!

SUCK! Kentucky you failed ME!!!!! I even prayed for my decision!! (kidding)

I'm really excited to fish!! I'm honeslty drooling to have my gear and be in the water! Its a distraction! Do I have a problem? YES!! Do I care? NO because its a good bonding problem with my Dad which I can't wait to have again!

Well... have a great week! I'm going to die of a nasal infection so seeya later!!

stickittothemanitis

Elder Carson Anderson
Mexico Monterrey West Mission

God Tells Us What To Do in CONFERENCE

3/27/2017

Hey- just a quick letter. We had transfers and I'm still here in Cayey with my new comp Elder Reyes from Mexico. We get along great! We had a good week and we found 5 new people to start teaching. We were planning to invite them to be baptized but our appointments cancelled.

Something cool that happened yesterday was Orlando that was recently baptized, now has the Aaronic Priesthood. He recieved it and hopefully soon he can start exercising it by passing the Sacrament. It should be cool.

Nothing else has really happened- just trying to baptize here in Cayey and find people that will progress. We had a zone activity today that was fun. We played kickball. Emily Vincent from Box Elder just got to the mish so it was cool to see her.

My last General Conference in the mission is coming up! My gosh- I'm excited to hear what they have to say!! One of the things I learned from my mission is that I know now that what they say comes from God. SO if you want to know what God wants us to do - watch conference!!
Love you all and have a good week!!

Also I was sooo happy USA won the Baseball classic vs. Puerto Rico

Elder Cody Anderson
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Zone Activity playing kickball

Spiritual Experience GOALS!

3/22/2017

Mom and Dad,
This week was great. Not alot of things happened, JUST WORK and serving people thats pretty much what we did!
On Saturday we played basketball in the morning. We saw a guy on the other side of the court but never talked with us. On Sunday we see the dude walk in the chapel with his friend! WOW! We went and talked with them and he is a member and his friend is not. We went during this week and taught him! He is interested and is a good friend to us.
Jose Angel (prison dude) is doing great! He had his son come over that he has not seen in 15 years. I'm so happy for him. Half of his life he has been in prison and now he is trying to be a better father and be there for his kids. Today at the temple I bought him a bible and the triple and a hymn book so that he can always have them.
I have learned this week that if we are not having spritual experiences we are not living right haha! We are either doing something or we are somewhere where we can't have spiritual experiences. Those experiences help us grow in life and increases our testimony! So we need them on a regular basis. My goal is to help my zone to increase that in our missions. I'm currently visiting with each Elder and setting goals so that they can have at least one BIG spititual experience each week or maybe each day! It matters on our faith!

The Mountain Dew stash is amazing! We have been drinking so many!! Its amazing and I have missed it so much because they don't sell it here in Mexico! I'm loving the treats so thank you so much! and the bag will be nice to pack stuff in it too!

Also with my brithday package I would like some new pants! If you could get me like 2 more pants! My belt loops are all broken on the back and there are holes in each pair of my pants so yea... I might need more pants. I still wear 28/30!! I have not been blessed with growing on the mission! But oh well!

Elder Quilter is a good guy!! We love talking to each other about outdoors things! That's why we went to Portero Chico! He is going to Utah State after his mission so we're going to go fly fishing in Logan Canyon!

I love you so much! I'll write you on monday!

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

Archives

December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015