Happy Memorial Day

Well to start this email out HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!! I hope that you all had a great Memorial Day and that it was full of the normal and usual festivities. For me, yeah not so much! It was p-day and yeah possibly one of the worst p-day's ever. First of all because Memorial Day is my favorite holiday of the year! And when your on your mission you really don't celebrate those kind of holiday's But once p-day was over at 6pm we did have a barbecue and that was really good so I guess we had partly a normal Memorial Day? But this week was a good week. At transfer's Elder Gilliland and I stayed together. It is just the two of us now and our area is still doing very well. This past week we had three baptisms in our area. On Thursday we had two baptisms. We had the baptisms of K. and S. Johnson. Two girls ages 9 and 11. These two girls were so ready to get baptized and make those commitments with their heavenly father. Then on Saturday we had the baptism of K.M. That was an interesting baptism and we will just keep it at that. Our area is still looking really good and we have a lot of potential for this coming month of June. We are looking at having 9 baptisms for the month of June in our area. So with the faith and help of every one of you and the prayers of all of you as well I know that this can happen!

So this week Elder B. my third companion finally went home! Now I know that this makes it sound like I really did not like him. This is not true! I did like him! I liked him a lot, and I learned a lot from him! He taught me a lot and I am very thankful to him for all that he taught me. But in the last few weeks of his mission he got very "trunky" and ready to go home. He was always talking about home and going back home and what he was going to do, go surfing, go swimming, go on walks with his mom and so on. Now this was hard for both me and Elder Gilliland, but I think a little extra hard for me. With me being so close to home. (like what 15-20 miles) It would be so easy for me to go home! I have people offer it to me all the time. Oh come on Elder Anderson jump in my car I will take you home right now it's only down the road. And the last two weeks my headaches have been a lot worst then they have been in the past. It has made it a lot harder for me to concentrate and focus on the work. So with the headaches being really bad and me feeling really sick on top of Elder B. talking about home so much I pretty much just wanted to go home! But then I got the great opportunity to go downtown with President Laney and some other missionary's. We went and toured temple square and the church history museum. In the church history museum their is a saying next to one of the church prophets now I don't remember which prophet it was but we have all heard this saying, But it has never hit me stronger then it did on Friday. It says, " WHAT-E'ER-THOU-ART-ACT-WELL-THY-PART." What a true statement! What ever you are doing, or whatever capacity you are in. Just act well! Act as you are supposed to. Whether you are a missionary, a bishop, a stake president, or a primary teacher, just act how you should be acting and how the Lord would want you to act. And that is what matters! I believe that is a motto we should all have.

I was also studying President Uchtdorf's talk from general conference during the priesthood session titled, "Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down." This is one of my new favorite talks! He talked about the great Nehemiah of the Old Testament. And how he was doing many great things and he was faced with many challenges and much tribulation but when faced with this his reply was, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down." This is my new motto as a missionary. "I am doing a great work, and cannot nor will not come down!" I am doing the lord's work. The greatest of all the work! What greater work is there? I love seeing the changes people are making in their lives and the difference this is making in my own life as well. I cannot believe how much I have grown on my mission in just these 4 short months!

I know that this is the true church of God, I know that the Prophet Joseph Smith did indeed see God the father and his son Jesus Christ. I know that through them Joseph Smith did restore this church, the true church of Christ back to the earth. And that due to that we have the proper priesthood authority on the earth today to baptize and to confirm people member's of this one and only true church on the earth today. I know that President Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet of god today! I know this church is true with all of my heart I know it!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Love,
Elder Anderson