The rain came down and the floods came up...

Hey there!  Wow, what a crazy week it has been!  

Last Monday we tutored an investigator named Thelma for 4 hours.  My brain hurt a bit afterwords but it was good to get practice doing things like that.  

Thelma is an amazing woman.  She is 31 and a single mother of 4.  She also works and goes to school.  They started teaching her a few weeks before I got here and she's never been to church.  She knows that it is what she needs to do but has a hard time acting.  We decided that we needed to do whatever it took to get her to church so we tutored her and then made her and her family breakfast yesterday.  And guess what... it worked!  She came to church for the first time!  I was SO happy!

So we also got a new companion this week.  Her name is Sister Rodriguez and is from Boston.  She has been speaking Spanish her whole life!  I'm so glad because we have needed help with Spanish.  She's been out for 9 months and President has kept her in Tucson the whole time.  On Wednesday morning (transfer day) we got a phone call from him telling us that he was sending her out here for a fresh start and the advice he has for us is to be patient and love her.  He wanted us to make this the first companionship that she has ever succeeded in.  She's an awesome teacher and really bold.  We've had some problems so we had a big companionship inventory yesterday which helped a lot.  I mentioned that in D&C 42:14 it states that if you don't have the Spirit you "shall not teach."  So we discussed all of our thoughts and feelings (actually, I didn't talk too much because it was mostly the other 2 needing to share; I was kind of the middle person).  But, last night we had some awesome lessons because we finally had the Spirit with us.  

I'm learning a lot about charity and I pray for it constantly.

Monsoon season has finally arrived.  It was a bit late though.  The worst of it hit on Saturday night.  Around 8 pm we went to a members house to get something really quick.  Well, right as we got there a downpour began.  I've never seen anything like this before.  It was so windy and the rain just came down.  We decided to wait it out a bit.  After a bit it was just a drizzle so we thought that we should leave before it got worse.  Bad idea.  I've driven in tons of conditions but never anything like this.  We got out of the apartment complex and onto the road and it was flooded.  We quickly realized that we couldn't keep driving.  The street had turned into a river within like a half hour.  When I say like a river I mean the water was probably about 3 feet deep in some areas.  It was just under the windows of the car in some places.  I really have no idea how it happened so fast.  From the apt complex it didn't even look that bad but boy were we wrong.  Needless to say, we didn't make curfew that night. We got home around 11:30.  It was crazy.  The power was out and lots of the roads were closed.  This experience taught me a lot.  We have to be ready for the rains to come. They will come but what matters is how we react to it.  Also, its important to remember that tomorrow is a new day.  The sun will come out again the rain will dry. Sometimes we just need to be patient.

Since I've been here I've really tried to follow President Monson's example of caring for the one.  I don't care who the person is - baptized or not - everyone needs to be reached out to.  I've found that from doing this my faith has been strengthened.  I've learned so much from the people out here and after talking to them I always have a desire to do a little better.

Thanks so much for the letters and packages!  I love them all so much and every day I think "I sure have the best family and friends in the WORLD!"  I'm sorry to hear about BYU.  That really is such a shame.  Well, have a great week!  I love you all and am so thankful for all of you!
Love, Hermana Anderson

Another Slow Week...

Well this week was yet another slow week. The last two weeks have been two really hard and really slow weeks! We have been working really hard to find some new investigators this week but to no avail.

The last two weeks we have found 0 new investigators so it is really frustrating!

We taught a family this week that we were hoping to pick up as new investigators. This is probably the very first complete non-member family that I have taught on my mission. (Mom this is the family that your friend knows). But anyways we taught them, and the lesson went really well and we were able to answer lots of questions. They have been investigating a couple of different religions. The Methodist, Catholic, and the LDS church. So we tried to put them on date for baptism and they totally shot it down. They don't believe that God can answer their prayer's. We asked them how long they thought it would take for God to answer their prayer's as to which religion was true. Their answer was 9 months. I was like wow that is a long time! So hopefully they will pray and they will actually find out that God does answer our prayer's and that it doesn't take 9 month's.

Transfers are this week and I am 98% positive that I will be transferred, but you never know.

So this week I also came upon a quote that I really liked as well that I would like to share with all of you. The quote is from Elder David A. Bednar and it says, "In The Strength of The Lord We Can Do And Endure And Overcome All Things." That quote is so true! That through the power and strength of our lord and savior Jesus Christ we can overcome anything.

I love you all and hope that you all have a great week!
Love Elder Anderson!

(Elder Anderson touring some tourist sites in his mission.)

Well this week was a pretty slow week. We were not able to pick up any new investigators so that was kind of lame. But all three of our investigators that are on date for baptism came to church yesterday so that was good.

We had a pretty cool experience this week. We have been teaching this guy named John. He is a 62 year old guy. He is an interesting guy. He is a really smart guy, he was a scientist for a profession and used to work for the national government making vaccinations. About five years ago he got in a really bad car accident and lost lots of his memory. He is still a fairly normal guy but pretty much does not remember too much of his life history before the car accident.

So before the car accident he joined the LDS church and was baptized and was also an endowed member of the church. He was a very faithful and very active member of the church. But now John has no memory of ever being a member of the church. So we have been teaching him and he tells people that he is "investigating" the church. It is hard to teach him because it is not like he can get re-baptized but we are just trying to get him to remember.

So on Wednesday we had a lesson with him. And the spirit was so strong. We talked about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. He stopped me and said now wait a minute, I was baptized wasn't I? And I said yeah John you were. It is so true in the scriptures where it says. The gift of the holy ghost will bring back to our remembrance all things. This was an event that testified to me that, that scripture was true.

Just thought I would share that cool story with all of you.

But other then that nothing really exciting this week. We went to four sacrament meetings yesterday so it was a very long day! We spoke in two of them, And I can tell that my story is really having an impact on people.

I love serving a mission and serving the Lord daily! This is the best thing I could possibly be doing with my life at this time! The last 8 months of my life have been the hardest 8 months, but have also been the best 8 months of my life and the most fulfilling eight months of my life!

I love all of you and hope and pray that all of you will be able to have the joy of the gospel in your lives. And also will be able to have missionary opportunity's in your daily lives.

Have a great week and I hope to hear from you all soon!

Love, Elder Anderson