2-18-13

Hi there everyone.  Happy President´s day.  I guess you could call it a coincidence that Ecuador had it´s elections yesterday.  The same president, Rafael Correa, shall reign a few more years haha.  

Anyways, Happy Birthday Elaina and Tyty.  I did remember them both because I have my little calendar that Paige sent me to remind me when the birthdays are.  I have been starting to miss the american food a lot.  I am more than positive that you guys ate something really good and it makes me really jealous haha.  

I have had a good week.  I am very grateful for the truly converted members that help us out.  We had an activity with all of the missionaries in the zone and we paired up with members to go meet new investigators and pick up some referrals.

There is a preparing missionary that just got his call to Provo.  I am helping him out with his call that came in English.  He gets there in May so I might send him with a couple things.  

Well this week I was able to learn about showing love to those who are closest to us.  This came out of a conference talk but is a quote from C.S. Lewis:

Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient’s soul. The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbours whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary.”⁴

People in their imaginary world can think they are really righteous, but then when they walk in their home (the real and most important world) they forget that imaginary person they had pretended to be.  So I hope we may all really LIVE in the real world and be loving towards our own.  

With much love, Elder Anderson

1-7-13

Hi mother and brothers and sisters and dad and friends......

Well it is a whole new year.  I am pretty positive that I will never forget 2012....the year that the world was supposed to end yet I made it all 365 days on the mission. I hope all of you were able to reflect on what happened this past year as well as I did.  Ecuador goes crazy with their muñecos.  Everyone buys or makes these piñata type things and fills them with really loud fireworks.  At midnight the whole city blew up and then turned black with smoke.  lt was pretty exciting.  Don´t worry--I was in the house, but on the roof we were able to see everything. 

Work hard in school, everyone.  Just be grateful that you are all able to study in such high-class universities.  Our country is very blessed to be able to provide such outstanding schooling to so many.  Take advantage of that blessing and soon you will all be able to be a blessing to so many others with the rich knowledge and prosperity that God provides to those who obey.

It is funny to hear that Tera got a new car.  I was thinking about that this week saying to myself that for sure someone has a new car by now? Or a new boat? Haha, anyways congratuations Tera.  You are an official mother of two children with your new, bigger car.

It was a pretty crazy week trying to get everything ready for the baptisms...No resultó...One of the investigators had to work the whole week and wasn´t going to be albe to attend church nor her confirmation.  Another one really had us going and hoping all the way up until the last moment with the baptismal font full and the members waiting.  We both had to take a deep breath and try to understand her and the situation that was presented.  All is well.  I know that something in what happened had to do with the will of God and we willl continue to sacrafice to be able to bless our investigators in their challenges.

The members are really incredible.  We have the chance to meet with a lot of the stake leaders to try to help lighten their load.  The Stake Mission Leader´s name is Pablo Ceballos.  It was like the third time talking to him, but this time it was so different.  He sacrafices so much in order to magnify his Priesthood duty.  His calling involves a lot of time and organization.  The only problem is that the other leaders are not as dedicated nor punctual as he is.  If I were him, I would feel so discouraged and overwhelmed by the load on my shoulders(and really, super, overly bothered by the lack of respect of other people´s time) yet he treated the situation in such a solid and confident manner that my feelings of resentment toward others were taken away.  My heart truly was touched and I felt a whole new level of charity towards him--and even towards his family.  I asked if there was any way we could lighten his load and all he did was look at us and share his testimony of the gospel and the importance of the work we are performing as missionaries.  It was such an inspiring experience.  I hope to be as strong as he was when I am older with a "high-time required" calling in the church.

What else...I am really happy.  This gospel is incredible.  I love each and every one of you.  

Hi mom and others,

So with the whole Christmas thing...I don´t want to skype.  It is a huge hastle and I would rather talk to everyone individually.  It will be just like Mother´s day.  I will call one of your phones and you can work it all out.  The difficult things is that Christmas Day is Tuesday and we have District meeting at 9 until 12ish.  I am thinking that 12ish would work best.  How does that sound?  If not it can be Christmas eve or even the 26th.  Just let me know.

I have had an awesome week.  It is so true all they say about the plateau affect on the mission.  We jump on a rocket at the beginning and get to a point where things all start blending in and we stop progressing.  I caught myself before it could happen and I feel a really strong spirit blessing my life as I understand more fully the scriptures that I am reading.  In the Book of Mormon I read that

And whoso receiveth ^athis record, and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of^bgreater things than these.

There are so many things out there for us to discover.  Even more than those that are written in the scriptures--but we must accept the scriptures before they shall be revealed to us.

This week we will be heading out to Guayaquil...again haha.  I love the four hour bus-ride....We should be meeting with a huge group of missionaries and we will be able to go to the temple.  It has been almost exactly a year since I last entered the temple so you can imagine that I am pretty excited. 

It has been a good experience these last few month with my companion.  I have learned how to control myself and to stand my ground when the investigators start to attack.  I don´t want to doubt anything.  I know I have been sent here by a prophet of God and it is my responsibility to share the gospel in all of its fulness--even if they don´t want to accept the truth.  Yesterday an ex-member of the church listened to us along with her Catholic husband.  He is a good person.  He is a good dad.  But he fails to understand the never-failing virtue of obedience.  He said he likes the Catholic church because it doesn´t make him do things he doesn´t want to do.  Things like drink coffee or a beer every now and then.  Things like a bishop who helps us stay obedient and worthy enough to enter into the temple by asking if we pay a full-tithing. 

Sometimes I don´t like walking around in the sun.  Sometimes I don´t like when the people on the street say something offensive.  Sometimes I don´t like waking up at 6:25 to exercise.  But then I remember that a God who doesn´t require sacrifice is not a true God.  He would be a God who does not ask us to progress.  Being good would be good enough.  But that is not the God that I serve.  I am so grateful for the testimony that I have in this Gospel that I am now sharing.  It all comes back to Christ.  We strive to follow a perfect being.  He, who without flaw, showed us the way.  It all is so worth it.  I feel such a strong peace as I see others who really have understood these things and cause others to see the light of Christ in their lives.  I remember my family who has that same light.  May we like the children accept the commandment to bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually.

I love you all.  Have an excellent week.

Elder Anderson  

October 8th

Hi everyone.  Wow flip´s sounds so fun right now.  It has been more than a year since I last did a backflip.  I am really looking forward when we get to go to priesthood session once more all together. 

This has been a week of revelation down here.  We had a conference with the president and he talked a ton about virtue and how it is what will most give us spiritual power as a missionary.  The mission down here is doing awesome-so close to having 300 baptisms in one month.  So many amazing missionaries.

We also were able to have 2 baptisms.  Juan Medina was chosen so long ago to be the next member of the true church.  He is a fisherman (50 percent of Manta are fishermen) and was so submissive and believing as we taught our message.  He has such a sincere heart and was so ready to receive all that the Lord has prepared for him.  We will now be working with his wife and his daughter. 

Conference was incredible!!  Did I see John Ford in the Priesthood Session Choir?  That was cool that they mentioned Centerville, also.  I´m the only North American missionary in the city so everyone kept bugging me asking how it feels to be in the conference center and asking who I know.  It is always fun to say that I know Brother Russon in the choir haha.

So many inspiring talks, and such a strong spirit right off the bat with that huge announcement.  Did you not feel an overwhelming spirit of excitement?  I felt so........good about all that he said.  I can´t wait to see all the new missionaries get on the next plane out.  I thought of Blair and Doug.  They could be out of there before I get back.

I love you very much.

Time ran out.

Elder Anderson

A piCTurE UpDATe

October 1, 2012

Hello, hello, hello!!!!!

Wow mom all is well.  That is so cool that you were able to go from temple to temple.  I appreciate now more than ever how special the Salt Lake Temple is.  Haha you met Sister Dalton?  I will be waiting to hear her message in conference about the Lakeview Ward young women.  Nathan Kapple will be seeing his parents tomorrow?  Tracy has gotta be going crazy haha.  Well tell Nate hi for me when you get the chance.  I haven´t heard from him the whole mission.  And the last time I heard from Bennett was last year.  Two years later he has got to be a whole new person.  I would also love to hear from him.  Maybe you could forward me some of his e-mails?  Happy Birthday´s to everyone; Kim, Bennett, Charlie and Katie.  We are all getting older here.

It has turned out to be an excellent week, once more.  I am still on a spiritual high thinking of all the people that gave heed to the promptings of the spirit back in Babahoyo and for the amazing people that continue to hear our message in Manta.  We fought and fought and ended up having 4 baptisms this past week.  Rosa is the Elder´s Quorum President´s mom and has been visited by many missionaries.  She is 82 years old....way old haha.  She is beyond funny, though.  She makes us laugh like crazy every time we visit right in the middle of the lesson.  This week we visited her everyday, and everyday she told us she wasn´t going to get baptized.  We encouraged her every time, and every time we ended up leaving with her saying that she would get baptized.  She passed her interview on Friday and the baptism turned out awesome.  The Bodero family had their final child, Joel-9 years old, get  baptized.  Mario, a recent convert, was able to baptize his little nephew and everything turned out even better because the whole ward showed up to support the great event.    

This next Friday we will have three more baptisms.  Two weeks ago we found this guy named Juan Median.  His heard was so prepared to hear our message and from the very beginning he has showed so much faith as he fulfills with each one of the commitments we leave behind.  He and his son, Ruben, will be baptized this week and the mom two weeks later.

The ward here really got together on this fifth Sunday to hold a special moment for an 18 year old girl named Andrea Chisa.  She was in the hospital with a really rough Dengue.  Before the bishop got up to conduct sacrament meeting he got all choked up and made the second counselor conduct.  I thought a lot about all those times when Lakeview ward got all in the gym to say a special prayer for those who were sick.  It is really quite an incredible event to see so many faithful latter-day saints fulfill with their responsibilities as true followers of Christ.  So the doctors had given awful news that there wasn´t even a chance of life, but later on Sunday, two specialists came and she is on a different treatment.  All in all, it was such a sweet and tender mercy to see how the faith of so many was able to bless the life of this sick girl.  The church is true.

Well that is my life as of now.  In the zone here, I am the only North American out of the 17 missionaries.

I love and miss all of you.

My little thought for the week from the words Abed-nego and his comrades while placed in front of the fiery furnace to be burned.  They showed grand faith in the power of the Lord but just to shove it in the king´s face and really make a statement said, "But if not (if God does not free us), be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."  

May be serve God even if it means suffering is the only path.

Elder Preston Anderson

10/24/12

Mom!!

I didn´t know you were going to get released so soon.  Good luck with
the last few moments in your calling.  That is awesome that Brad and
Tracy are going to hang out with Nate for a while.  That is going to
be the most incredible experience for all of them to meet some of the
people that Nate taught.  Wow he has gotta be such a grown up big boy
now.  I can´t wait to talk to him.

Well, I am doing so super great.  This past week we had so many
teaching opportunities and things are really on the way up in the
mission.  We are so deeply focused on reaching goals and our President
has forced us to look for ways to strengthen our faith and open our
eyes to all of the amazing possibilities.  I know that this is the
Lord´s work and He is the only one that will help us succeed.

The ward here is super nice and they are all so willing to do what is
necessary to help the missionaries out.  The fish really isn´t that
bad and I have already gotten used to it anyway.  I might even like it
a little.  I also have been trying a lot of different things to make
in the house.  I can´t stop thinking about how happy dad would be to
be in a place where the only fruit there is literally just taken off
the vine.  And yep, I put in the hot water.  It has made life so much
easier haha.  You have now idea how big of a difference it makes.  I
am really fortunate in my sector right now.  Very, very, very few
missionaries have the chance to live in such a nice house.

Me and my companion are getting along really well and we have lots to
do.  There are now 17 missionaries in the zone so it is a lot to take
care of.  It has been fun to get to know a lot of the missionaries
that I am working with.  They all have such amazing stories of how
they made it out here and how it changed their lives.  It got me to
remember all of the amazing people back in Centerville who helped me
make it out here.  Everything in my life is so much more meaningful.
I would be nothing without the mission. My life started here and I am
a forever grateful for my two brothers and my amazing dad who set the
example to serve a full-time mission.

Well Paige sent me an e-mail and told me that the family back in
Babahoyo got baptized.  Never ever ever ever in my entire life have I
felt something so fulfilling.  I know that I have a loving Heavenly
Father who truly listened to my prayer.  There hearts were so prepared
right in that perfect moment.  The Jacome family is part of who I am
and I just can´t believe it, really.  They are so close to eternity
because they finally took the first step and were baptized.

Well that is about it.  Tell everyone I say hi.  Tell all the young
men to go on missions.  I love you.

Elder Anderson