Season 10 Episode 1: BAPTISM!!

Hello Everyone,

        What a wonderful week! Moses's Baptism was this past Saturday!! I love that man! It was a wonderful service and I am so excited for him to start this wonderful journey in his life! Also I turned 20, it's so weird haha..

Monday: Elder Lowell, Elder Long and I were in a trio. It was a good p day! Then we had a lesson that night and it went okay..

Tuesday: Elder Long had to pack and we did a lot of stuff that was really boring. That was a very slow and stressful day.

Wednesday: We woke up early for transfers and because we were adding another set of missionaries to our zone I had to drive a sisters car to Bloomington. I drove by myself... It was really weird being alone again hahah!! Don't worry I had approval. ;) It was my birthday I turned 20 years old! We got back and got settled then we balled up at the church that night with a bunch of people. It was fun! Elder Newbold is a baller.

Thursday: We taught a guy named mo and we had a great lesson. He is a new investigator and it was great! We had a lot of stop by's and we got in a couple houses. We played some volleyball with some Mexicans on a street we were walking by. They thought it was so funny that we could spike it so easily haha it was really fun!

Friday: We had lots of planning for the transfer and for our area. We also had to finalize plans for Moses plans.

Saturday: In the morning we had to fill up the font at the church really early. We had Moses's baptism and it was so amazing! I was able to baptize him! His testimony was so amazing at the end . I am so grateful that I was able to be apart of his journey to the waters of baptism. This scripture has become more real to me D&C 18:15 :) What an amazing day!

Sunday: We had a great church service. A huge miracle happened to us! We were in sacrament meeting and a women pulled us out of the meeting and introduced us to a lady named Christina. The lady said that she showed up to the church from looking on LDS.org. She had lots of questions we ended up teaching her the 3rd hour of church and set a baptismal date for September 24th!  What a miracle! She was very prepared and really searching for truth! :)

We had a wonderful week! I am so grateful to be a missionary and be serving here in Minnesota ! I love the people here! Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I love you guys!! :)

Love, Elder Anderson

Moses' Baptism

Transfer Day PC: Mickela Cupkie

Season 9 Episode 6: Transfer Week: New Companion Elder Newbold in Medicine Lake, MN

Hello Family and Friends,

   We had a wonderful week! It was the last full week of the transfer. Lots of great things happened, let me tell you about it! :)

Monday: We biked quite a ways to our dinner appointment. That pretty much took up our whole night! We did some shopping during the day looking for clothes for some of the elders.

Tuesday: Well I have been having a difficult time breathing so I had an appointment at the Clinic, I was told that I have Asthma. So they gave me an Inhaler and I have been using it often. They said that it is from the Humidity because we have been biking in 95 Degrees with 90% Humidity.. So I think that is the cause of it. I will be fine though :) Then we biked round trip 23 miles going to dinner and stopping by lots of people.

Wednesday: I went on exchanges with Elder Beach who is a new missionary from Logan, UT. He knows Jason Money from football camps. he was the quarterback at SkyView High. We had a great day, we taught Moses The Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson and he received it very well! Then we had dinner but we got lost cause we were on bikes and I don't know how to get around just yet. We played basketball with a bunch of ballers. The guy I was guarding was a former Point Guard at St. John's University. He was super good haha!

Thursday: We had a lesson with Moses and a Prospective Elder in the morning. Then we did a bunch of Accounting calls. We had dinner with the Stake President. He was awesome, we had a wonderful visit and lesson. Then we had a first lesson with someone I had found a couple weeks ago on an exchange. Other than that we didn't have much go on the rest of the day.

Friday: We did service at a food bank with the whole zone. Then we had Moses's baptismal interview, he is good to go! He is getting baptized Saturday at 10:00 am and he asked me to baptize him. So I will be doing that! I can't believe this! He is an amazing person and I am excited for this new beginning and journey that he is taking! :)

Saturday: we had service with a less active. We had a couple of lessons. We had to do a lot of computer work that day for the zone. So that was okay..

Sunday: Great church service and we had a stake meeting with all the stake leaders talking about what we can do to improve the wards. Then we had mission presidents fireside. That was amazing! We stayed at the assistants for the night and it was fun!!

My new companion is Elder Newbold who went to Bingham High School. He is 6'8 and a baller! So I am so excited! :) Thanks for all y'all do! Have a good week!

Love, Elder Anderson

Season 9 Episode 5: Medicine Lake with Elder Long

Hello Everyone,

        Awesome week this week! We had 3 investigators at church which was so cool. It's amazing how when investigators come to church the speakers always say exactly what they need to hear, I just love it. :)

Monday: We went shopping in downtown Minneapolis with the Crystal Elders. It was fun! It is a really big city, wow! Then we played volleyball with the entire Zone at the Brooklyn Park Church. Later in the evening we had two active member lessons that both went well.

Tuesday: We went on exchanges with the Elm Creek Elders. I went with Elder Howe who goes home next week. I went to his area and we biked a lot. We tried to stop by lots of potentials and see some people but not a lot of success. We then went to a Vietnamese restaurant and it was really good. We had a couple lessons later that night that were good!

Wednesday: We had a multi-zone specialty training. It was in the Elk River Building. We combined with the St. Cloud Zone and it was a really good meeting. I conducted the meeting and that was good! We did lots of Role Plays which was really good, we talked about contacting people with the pamphlets and using them more in our daily missionary work. We then had a lesson with Bro Gbondo. We showed the Mormon message " Mountains to Climb " and then shared the scripture D&C 122:7-9.

Thursday: We went on exchanges with the Anoka Elders and I went with Elder Semadeni who also goes home next week haha. He came to my area and we had some cool opportunities. We found a couple new people. We also had a lesson with Moses and we taught him the Word of Wisdom and he liked it and committed to live it. Then we had a lesson with Bro Nunelly and that was good. He is super solid and a great guy! He will be going to the temple again in just acouple months.

Friday: we did service at a members home in the morning. For lunch Bro Stanich from my second area came and took us out to eat at smash burger. It was awesome, he brought the Watkins boys which was totally awesome, I love that man! We then had a lesson with Moses and taught him the Law of Chastity and committed to live it. What a golden
investigator! 

Saturday: We had a coordination meeting and then played frisbee. Then we did some service for bro smith. We had dinner at bro toribios and that was pretty much that day, nothing else exciting happened!

Sunday: We had 3 investigators at church and it was an amazing sacrament meeting. I loved it! Trent, Moses, and Tom all came. Two of them stayed for all 3 hours. Then we had lots of stop by's and some phone calls. Good day!

Moses Yeker baptism will be moved until the 27th of August. Less than two weeks, I am so excited for him to be baptized! I am enjoying this area, can't believe that the transfer ends next week! I love you all, have a good week!

Love,

Elder Anderson

Season 9 Episode 4 Medicine Lake with Elder Long

Hello Family and Friends,

        We had a great week. We were on bikes everyday getting great exercise, it was really great!! Moses our investigator is amazing. August 20th is the day so just in a few days :) :) :)

Monday: We had a really great P day, almost all the elders in the zone went golfing at this super cheap course. It was a great time. I love the elders in the zone, it's really fun to all hang out on P days.

Tuesday: We went on exchanges with the Andover Elders. I went with Elder Foutz who is from Mapleton. We know a lot of the same people so that was cool! He is one of the new missionaries and he is super solid. I am excited to continue to serve around him. We biked around and talked to people and had a couple lessons. It was fun!

Wednesday: We did a lot of stop by's and going around trying to find people and we didn't have much success. We then went with a member in the evening to do more stop by's and taught a couple less actives. It as great. There is always a member in the Ward who knows everyone and he was that guy.

Thursday: It was a pretty slow day.. We helped a member get ready to move for a couple hours and then had dinner with them. That went well!! As we were riding back towards the church, Elder Long was like "hey elder anderson let's stop at this McDonald's I got to go to the bathroom." As soon as he said that the spirit told me that there was someone in their that I needed to talk to. I went and sat down somewhat next to thing Liberian family and started talking to them and shared the Book of Mormon with them and got their address and phone number it was awesome they seem super solid. They don't live in our area but we were able to give the address to the assigned missionaries. It was a wonderful experience. The spirit is so real and I am so grateful for the guidance it has as we come out and spread the gospel.

Friday: really long day.. Lots of planning and calling.. Not much happened honestly..

Saturday: This was such an amazing day! We had MLC in Bloomington. Elder Soares of the Presidency of the Seventy came and trained us for a couple of hours. It was incredible, let's just say there was not  any dry eyes in the room at the end. I have lots of notes and am grateful for his uplifting message. I loved the message so much that I thought I would go up to him afterwards and thank him, because how I felt that he was talking just to me. When I went up to him he said "Thank you Elder Anderson, I felt as if we were communicating throughout the meeting, I appreciate your spirit. Love you Brother." I will never forget that moment. He is from Brazil and President Forbes served his mission there. It was cool! Then later we had dinner at the Jones house, one of the members in the Ward. They invited Moses over and we had a wonderful dinner and lesson afterwards. During the lesson Moses was like " So once I am Baptized what to I have to do after that?" How awesome is that!! He is so prepared :) what a spiritual day!!

Sunday: We had church and we had 3 investigators at church which was great :) After church we had a lesson with Moses and before we had the lesson we asked him if his family in Liberia knew that he was getting baptized. This is what he said (in a African accent) "Right before you guys got here I was talking to my family and told them that I was getting baptized and they said " Ah man I wish we could be there to see you get baptized as well as all of us be baptized as well" We were so excited to hear that! We are going to send a referral to some missionaries in Liberia sometime this week! We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he loved it! Later in the evening we had an interesting experience we were biking home at 9:00 and we met this guy at an intersection and he was from Vietnam and had been here 3 months and was wondering who we were. So we introduced ourselves and he said "Where is your church building? I want to go there now!! " so we rode to the church with him and he got way mad at us because we didn't give him water and treat him like a guest I guess. We told him there were drinking fountains but he said those were gross and that he needed a water bottle. Then he asked for the prophets address so he could write him about it. Then we told him we don't know his address and he again got way ticked off at us, it was very interesting. Hahah I was so confused with everything that happened with him!!! 

We had a great week! Thank you guys for everything I appreciate the emails!

Elder Foutz from Mapleton:

Elder Richins is going home. Watch for him at shortstop at BYU!!

Mission Leadership Conference with Elder Soares:

Love, Elder Anderson

Season 9 Episode 3: Medicine Lake with Elder Long

Hello Family and Friends,

        Another great week with an amazing miracle. We committed someone to Baptism!! :) I am so excited for him. His name is Moses and I will talk more about him when I tell about the lesson.

Monday: We did a blitz exchange with the Andover Elders. I went with Elder Seng. They are both super new missionaries. Elder Foutz is from Mapleton and we know a lot of the same people. So that was cool! It was a good exchange we biked a lot and talked to quite a few people.

Tuesday: We had an amazing miracle. We taught Moses our new investigator who we just got referred to. He was so prepared for the Gospel! He got to Minnesota like 6 days ago. He is from Liberia and he told us he was praying that when he got here that he would go to the
church God wants him to. Of course Heavenly Father would lead him to us. The true church. We taught him the restoration and he loved it! We set a date for baptism for August 27th. I am so excited wow!!!

Wednesday: I went on exchanges with a new missionary. He came to medicine lake and we taught a few lessons. Nothing too amazing but it was a god exchange! I love new missionaries. He is from Cash Valley, UT. We played basketball that night and he was a baller it was a fun day.

Thursday: We had interviews with President Forbes. We had a lot to do. Every district had a district meeting and we had to set up a bunch of things for that! We did car inspections on every car in the Zone. I had a great interview with President. He is a great man and he gave lots of advice that I appreciate. Then I went on exchanges with the AP. Elder Morrow. He came to my area and all our appointments fell through. But something that was sweet, was we prayed with like 5 people on the street. We were just talking to everyone and I loved it!  He is a great missionary and I learned a lot from him. He played basketball at Wasatch High school and I figured out that we played each other so that was cool.

Friday: We accounted with all the district leaders and then did some weekly planning and then had another lesson with Moses. We had a great lesson, we went over the restoration again and showed him the short video of the first vision. He totally felt the spirit and I was so pumped about it! Great lesson. Then Elder Lowell and I the new missionary who is playing college ball went to a park where a bunch of Africans play every day Monday - Friday 6:00-9:00 and we played with them and it was so much fun. They talk so much trash it was so funny. 

Saturday: Really slow day.. Not a lot happened! We made a bunch of phone calls and it just was not the best day. At 4:00 I got a text asking if I could speak in church. The topic I got was "How Can I learn from Pioneers of the past to be a pioneer today" I was freaking out just cause I had so little time to prepare. But I was able to come up with something! We saw the man on the bench that I talked about a few weeks ago, I told him that I was speaking in church and I told him  it would mean a lot to me if he came.

Sunday: And he came to church for my talk. Tom, Moses, and a guy named Bob. All non members. It was awesome! I was super nervous for the talk, but it went well!! :) Then we had dinner at a recently returned mission presidents house. They invited Moses and we had an awesome dinner and short lesson with them. We had to bike a long way to get there so it was pretty much our whole night doing that.

Great week this week! Can't wait for the baptism!! I love you all, it means so much when I get emails and letters from you! Make this week awesome!!


Elder Morrow and Elder Anderson:

Mission Miracles:

Love, Elder Anderson