A Wonderful Week of Surprises in Bloomington with Elder Oldroyd

Hello Family and Friends,


   This week was a good one. We have been very blessed this week! On Monday we went to the Anoka Zone P day and played kickball which was fun. On Tuesday we had some good lessons with our investigators. We taught a kid named buddy he is our 17 year old investigator who is progressing a lot just since I have been here. We taught Timothy and Steve our other two investigators who are a little odd, but they are doing well.

   On Wednesday we drove for a super long time driving missionaries around. We dropped off Elder Johnston in Buffalo and picked up our new companion Elder Bullock. Elder Bullock is from McCammon Idaho and it has been fun having 2 companions. We now have 6 missionaries in the ward. Because now the sisters have a 3rd companion as well.

   Friday we did the mission wide finding hour and it went well. We went tracting for an hour and talked to a lot of good people it was a good time for all the missionaries and we saw lots of miracles again. On Friday we went to the twins game in the evening. Our investigator Tom Walters is a season ticket holder front row in target field and really wanted us to go and check it out, so we went to the game and it as super cool. They were playing the Detroit Tigers and Justin Verlander was on the mound, so that was cool to see him play. We had amazing seats!! Oh I forgot something to tell you, earlier that day we met up with my former Duluth investigator Ken. She was in the cities so Elder Johnston in Buffalo and me in Bloomington met her at the Maple Grove Zupas. She told us she is planning on being Baptized. What an amazing miracle. She told us that the spirit has told her many many times that being baptized is what she needs to do. I seriously am so happy for her and the decision she has made. The baptism will be sometime in May and that will be a very neat experience.

Sunday we had mission presidents fireside which was really great. The Minnesota Mormon Chorale was there and it was a really powerful event with 300 people in attendance. We had our investigator Buddy there and he really liked it!

I had a great week and I am really enjoying serving here in Bloomington. It is crazy to think that transfers is coming up so quickly. They are next week... wow! Hope everything is well for you!



1. Our investigator Buddy coming to church.
2. Exchanges with the Elder Moore in Elm Creek
3. My last companion and my current companion
4. All of the missionaries in the Bloomington Ward.

A Week of Miracles in the Mission with Elder Oldroyd

Hello Everyone,

  This week was a good one full of many miracles. On Tuesday we had a eally cool experience. We had dinner with the Stone's and we had our recent convert Jennifer over for dinner as well. After dinner we had a new member discussion with the entire family and Jennifer. The Stone's the night before studied Preach My Gospel and specifically all the points in the Restoration lesson and it was so cool that they all taught the 1st lesson to her. Elder Oldroyd and I added our testimonies to it, but it was so cool to see these members so engaged in teaching these new member discussions to Jennifer. 

  A miracle we saw on Wednesday night was we went to teach a man named timothy and with a member named Shawn. Previously we had gone over to his house and he had been super wasted and just been drinking  all day
so we weren't really able to teach him that well. We went over this time and he was completely sober, we were able to teach him the Restoration lesson and the spirit was so strong, this man had a sincere desire to learn more and we were able to teach him about prophets and how important it is in our lives that we follow prophets.
  
 This past Friday we had another cool experience. As a mission we had an hour of finding together. So we had a short spiritual thought and prayer on a conference call before and it was really cool to have everyone in the entire mission out knocking on doors, contacting people on the streets, and just teaching people. It was a really cool experience and we were able to find 53 new investigators in one hour all around Minnesota. We also shared the video 121 times! Anyway, it was just a cool thing we did as a mission this week.

   On Saturday we went to the Minneapolis Zone service and helped set up an Easter egg hunt. It was really fun, then that same evening we went with the Anoka Zone and did a downtown Minneapolis blitz where everyone went and shared the video as well as copies of the Book of Mormon.
   

Thanks for everything! Have a wonderful week!

Elder Anderson
Minneapolis Minnesota Mission
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

1) Minneapolis Zone Service

2)Anoka Zone Blitz

3) A long lost member we contacted in downtown Minneapolis 

Twins Game with Elder Oldroyd

Hello Everyone,

        This week was a great one. We had many things going on. Tuesday we had Mission Leadership Counsel, that went well. Elder Oldroyd and I lead a discussion on the importance of Role Plays. Overall MLC was a good experience and I think we were all uplifted.

        Wednesday we had new missionary training so all the new missionaries came to Bloomington and we had pretty much a zone conference for all of them. We gave a training on Planning for our investigators. It went fairly well. I love seeing all these new missionaries. They have so much faith and are so excited and scared at the same time. I remember being the exact same way, like a deer in the headlights.

        Thursday we had the twins game as a mission. Well at least all the missionaries in the Twin Cities. It was super awesome to see all my missionary friends and to watch my favorite game in the world. The Twins played the Royals and beat them 5-3 it was a good game and I was happy to see the twins doing so well. Elder Oldroyd got to be on the big screen because he was apart of a competition where they flipped water bottles and was trying to land them straight up. He lost though.. Elder Harper won though so that was good. The game was actually pretty windy and cold we were in the shade so it was even a little colder, but anything to be at a MLB game. After the 6th inning we couldn't really feel anything anyway we were just numb.

        Friday we went on exchanges with the Karen Speaking Elders. I got to teach a couple of lessons with them, even though I had no idea what they were saying. It was really cool, we sat on the floor for both lessons. They like to sit criss cross apple sauce. I actually can't sit like that very comfortably so I was moving around quite a bit haha. But the overall experience was cool. The Karen speaking people are so nice, the Elders told me that every door they knock on, they get in. They teach lessons all day long, it is really cool. I got a Karen name as well, the investigator told me mine and it translates into " Sweet Miracle" So i was pretty excited about that!

        We have been sharing the Easter video #PrinceofPeace with everyone and it has been really great. One night this week we were actually trying to tract down this women who referred herself on mormon.org, but she was not home. So as we were walking out of the apartment we see this lady on her knees looking through her purse with this man standing there as well. So we started talking to them and found out that she was a member but had been inactive for many years. We asked her what she was doing and she said that she had lost her keys to the car. We told her that when we lose things we like to pray and ask for help to find it. So we prayed with her and not even 10 seconds after amen she grabs her keys right out of her purse. What a miracle. We tried to share the video and she was not really interested, but we both know that experience had an impact on her. Down the road she will become active again. It was just a testimony to me, that God really is there. He watches over every single one of us! Prayer is a real. God answers prayers when we have faith.

This week was honestly good, just a little bit stressful. But stress helps you grow right? Haha anyway, thanks for supporting me out here! Have a wonderful week.

Pictures
1) Elder Oldroyd and I in MLC haha
2) Twins game
3) New Missionary Training
4) President Forbes playing catch
5) President Forbes, ELder Oldroyd, Elder Jones and I
6) Lesson I had in the Karen Elders

New Area with Elder Oldroyd

Hello Everyone,


      I apologize for not writing very recently. I have been very busy and it has been hard to get some time to write a good email. I don't even remember if I wrote since I got to my new area. Either way, I will just tell you. I am now serving in Bloomington which is just south of Minneapolis. I am serving with Elder Oldroyd one of my favorites. He and I were in the same MTC room together and to say we have fun would be an understatement. Just in the two weeks that I have been here I have had so much fun and so many things to do. President Forbes lives in Bloomington so we get to see him a lot and that has been really fun to be around him.

        The Bloomington ward is very solid, they love missionary work and do a lot of member missionary work. Elder Oldroyd and I have been praying that we will find a family to baptize this transfer which is really exciting. We have decided that we are going to tract 5 houses every single day and that sometime within the next couple of weeks we will find the family we want to baptize.

        Conference weekend! Oh my goodness! It was so amazing to be able to listen to our prophet, his counselors, and the apostles. What amazing talks! I felt the spirit very strong throughout the entire conference. Elder Costa gave an amazing talk that I am sure all missionaries loved because it was directed to all investigators that were watching. He was truly and answer to many prayers! I am so grateful that we have this opportunity every 6 months to be spiritually fed by these inspired servants of God. I encourage all of you to study out the talks again and apply things that you learned. We can all improve,repent, and change daily.

        I love this gospel! I love being a missionary more than anything. The Savior gave us everything he had, I want to be able to tell him that I gave him everything I had on my mission. Elder Oldroyd and I both have very motivating attitudes and are very excited about this work!

1. The car I am sitting in set a record by going 412MPH
2. Mall of America