Season 8 Episode 6

Hello Family and Friends,

We find out transfers today. I got a call this morning from the AP he told me I am going to be a Zone Leader in the Anoka Zone. That makes me very sad to leave this wonderful area in Red Wing. I am going to miss it a lot!! Worst part of the mission is saying goodbye to so many people.. I know that the Lord needs me in my new area though!

Monday:  Well this was like the best day ever!! I love the 4th of July!! But what was even better was I got to go to the Twins game. What was the cool part though, members from my home Ward in Spanish Fork the Johnson's came and picked us up in Red Wing and took us to the game. It was such a cool experience. I am very grateful that they took the time to do that! I will send lots of pictures from the game. Then that night we went to the Fickles house for dinner and fireworks. It truly was a great day! I loved it!

Tuesday: It was a slow day, since we weren't able to do laundry or grocery shopping the day before, we did that. I got some new pants from JC Penny. Then we had dinner at the Voigts.. That was pretty much our day. It was long..

Wednesday: We helped out a non member clean up their yard. There was a huge wind and rain storm. Like 60 MPH winds. It was insane. so like all the streets had trees that had fallen down on them. Then we had a lesson with our investigator Kevin Buck. He just can't give up smoking.. it's sad. Then we went out with a member named Bro Burdick and he took us to see some less actives in the area. We were able to get in with two of them and share messages. It was great!

Thursday: We cleaned the apartment in the morning because it was quite messy. It's crazy how you can honestly feel the spirit more when you are in a clean place. Then we did a lot of phone calls and stop by's. We were not able to see a lot of people, but it was still good. Then we had a lesson that night with a new investigator we have that we found through a member. It was awesome. Elder Kershaw and Matt (the investigator) were talking about fishing and hunting for like 45 minutes hahah they connected very well. Then we taught him the restoration and he said that it really makes sense to him and that he believes in it!

Friday: We did our weekly planning. It actually wasn't boring! It went well!!  We then mowed the Dunlaps lawn. Then we helped someone move the rest of the night. It was a less active family. But from what I heard from the members of the Ward. They abuse the elders quorum by thinking that they are an actual moving company and never coming to church or saying thank you. I think that's sad! So we were helping them for a couple of hours and they were honestly not very nice. Kinda sad to see that! Oh well, I guess it's good that we were able to help out!!

Saturday: We went to sister caulkins neighbor in the morning and helped them move some really heavy things. Then we went to sister caulkins and helped her prepare for a reception or something. Then we went to Lake City and we met with a family that just got there names removed from the church. I think it's because they read Anti Mormon stuff. Makes us sad.

Sunday: Awesome church service. We had Elder Stacey from the quorum of the Seventy at our Ward. Which is cool because my first week in the mission field he was at my Ward in Thunder Bay. He was a very good speaker and brought the spirit. We had two investigators at church which made me super excited! Then we had a lesson with one of the investigators that was there at church. We were teaching the Plan of Salvation and we were talking about the resurrection and he had a really hard time with that. It was honestly hard to teach him after that! But hopefully things will go well in the future.

I am leaving Red Wing on Wednesday. It makes me very sad! I have gained a stronger testimony from serving here in Red Wing. I have come to understand that service is an amazing way of touching people's hearts. Just like in the Book of Mormon when Ammon served King Lamoni and showed him he cared about him. I have been able to do that as I
have been here. I love people very much here! I have seen many miracles. I have gained a stronger testimony of our savior Jesus Christ. That he actually does live today and he truly guides this church. I am grateful for the opportunity to have been here. It's a see ya later not a goodbye forever. I will come back here after the mission to visit people. I love my mission and am grateful for everything that has happened so far! Thanks for your prayers and support. I love y'all!!

Love, Elder Anderson

4th of July Twins Game

On the 4th of July, Scott and Kaye Johnson of our ward were in Minnesota and asked if they could take Elder Anderson and Elder Kershaw to the Twins game vs. the Oakland A's. Taylor got permission from President Forbes and they arranged to go with the Johnsons and their family. It was so exciting for all of us at home to know that Taylor would be spending the day with people that we know and love. We are so grateful to Scott and Kaye for their generosity and willingness to pick them up and take them with their family to the game. We can't wait to hear about it next week in Taylor's email.

This was taken when they first picked the Elders up at their apartment in Red Wing:

Kaye sent me this text with the following pictures: "Wow, we just had the best day! He is doing wonderful! Looks great as always. He bought him a new hat and smiled the whole day:) He loves all of you and misses you and Spanish Fork. I think we got him caught up on everyone in our ward and town. Pictures to follow! We are so glad we got to do this. We had a wonderful 4th of July!!"

Needless to say we were very excited to receive that text. I admit I did cry quite a bit. It was so wonderful to know that someone I know was with our boy today. I know that Taylor will never forget this experience and neither will Steve or I. It was a wonderful day!

Scott and Kaye with Elder Anderson at the game:

 The Elders with the Johnson's son, Jens, and grandkids:

Watching the game:

Having pizza for lunch right before the game: Taylor looks so great!

We love the Johnsons so much! They are wonderful people and we are lucky to call them our friends.

Season 8 Episode 5

Hello Everyone,

        Happy 4th of July!! I love this day! It is a wonderful holiday. This week was another good one and I am excited to tell you about it.

Monday: We helped someone move out of one house into a different housefrom 9:00-6:00 that night. It was a long day. Elder Kershaw and I were the only men there that could actually lift anything. So we were lifting a bunch a stuff. To say the least, we were exhausted after that day. Something amazing came out of that though! We are teaching someone we met from helping that day!

Tuesday: We did our grocery shopping in the morning because we had no time the day before, then we helped the Hamblin's out with some of there yard work. We were still tired from the day before. Then later that day, the Eagan Elders came to blitz our area. I went with Elder Badders for his last exchange of his mission. I swear all the missionaries I have served around all are either home or are going home very soon. We taught this Jewish guy that we found. It was an interesting conversation. He wants us to come back though! It was a good exchange with Elder Badders.

Wednesday: In the morning the 4 of us ran up one of the Bluffs here in Red Wing. It was definitely a hard workout. It was awesome though! Beautiful view. Then we did service at connecting connections. Then we had a lesson with a former investigator Kevin Buck. He has an addiction to smoking. He wants to get baptized but can't give up cigarettes. We gave him a blessing! He will give it up. I know he will! Then later that night, Bro Voigt took us out to see some people. We had an appointment with Dusty Hartin. He is a man we met from Monday's big move. He is super solid. He told us he is going to read the entire Book of Mormon. He is going to pray about it and be a church this Sunday. It was a great lesson.

Thursday: In the morning we got our haircuts from Michelle Dunlap. She is a potential investigator. Then we did some yard work for them! Then we went home for lunch and did a lot of phone calls and planning to set up some things for the week. Then David Dunlap took us out and bought us 18 holes of golf. It was such a good time! The course we golfed at is called Mississippi National. It was a beautiful course. I have a couple videos of golfing that I will send. It was a great time!

Friday: We mowed the Dunlaps lawn. Then we did our weekly planning session. Then all our lessons fell through.. We went and had a lesson with bro Edwards. But instead of us teaching him, he taught us. Long story.. Then after that we were heading home and our downstairs neighbor talked to us for like an hour about the gospel. It was a great discussion.

Saturday: We went to an investigators house that Elder Kershaw and Elder McClain found when they were on exchanges earlier in the week. They are super into guns and showed us everything he had and even shot some targets to show us. It was cool! He bought us super expensive steak and grilled em up. It was so good! The whole family is interested in the gospel. We are going back there sometime this week. Then we stopped by a members home and talked to them for a while. They had a relative over that is an atheist. He was a little bit uncomfortable seeing us there and it was interesting..

Sunday: We had an awesome Church service. We had 4 non members show up. Dusty our new investigator came to all 3 hours of church. It was wonderful! He liked it! Then one of the recently returning less active families brought 3 non members with them. They stayed for all 3 hours as well! We are going to teach these guys. It was so sick! Heather Jensen didn't show up.. She just cancels time after time.. It gets quite frustrating!! Bro Stanich from the Lake Marion Ward (My last area) came to church in Red Wing as well. Man he loves me! Hahah I love him a lot too! He is such a good guy! He always tells me I could be his son. It's cool to see how much we have connected with each other and that he really wants to see me like all the time. Later that night, we had a lesson with Dusty, we talked about church and how he liked it. Also, we talked about the restoration again. It was a great lesson. He is coming next week as well! Next week we have Elder Stacey of the Seventy coming to our ward in Red Wing. That'll be cool!

The reason I am emailing so early in the day is I am going to the twins game today with the Johnson's from my home Ward. We are leaving to go to the game in like an hour. This will be such a cool experience to see someone I know from home!! :) I am very grateful that they are coming out here! I will send lots of pictures next week! What's better than the 4th of July and a baseball game? Nothing. I am so pumped! Anyway, have a great 4th everyone. I love you all!!!

Love, Elder Anderson

Season 8 Episode 4

Hello Family and Friends,

        Sorry that I have not been good at writing recently. Things have been a little bit crazy here in Red Wing. But the work is definitely going forward and we are seeing Heavenly Fathers hand in our missionary work each day.

Monday: We went on exchanges in Hudson WI again with our zone leaders because I left my credit card at Buffalo Wild Wings from two weeks ago. The only way to get it back was to be there with my ID ..  So That was really fun! Both of our Zone Leaders I get a long really well with. I always enjoy the time we spend with them! We played basketball again on the street with a bunch of random kids. It was very fun!

Tuesday: We had a Zone Specialty Training in Oakdale. It was really good, I got to see some old missionary friends. I love that! Then after that, we went straight to Cannon Falls for a lesson we had with a women named Jane. She had previously told us that she notices something different about the Mormon Religion. She says " You all seem so happy " We explained where that happiness comes from. The lesson was incredible, she felt the spirit so strong. She was even taking notes during the lesson, how sick is that? We didn't even have to invite her to Pray about the Book of Mormon. She told us "I am going to read and pray about this book as soon as I can" She is super solid and awesome. I love lessons like that!

Wednesday: We did service at connecting connection and then we did some service for Sister Hamblin, we are putting in mulch around a couple of trees for her. Her husband works all around the world and is gone a lot, so we help her often because she has a lot of things to worry about in her yard. Then we got invited to the YM and YW softball game which was so sick. I loved it! It really made me miss putting on cleats and playing actual baseball.

Thursday: We did some tracting and we did not see too much success with that. But we did talk to some people which is better than usual. Then we did a couple of stop by's with some potential investigators which was good. We got in contact with a few of them which was great. 

Friday: We did weekly planning and then we mowed the Dunlap's lawn and weeded there garden for them. That was good! Then we went to dinner with the Hadler's they are a super cool family and I really like them. Then we went to cannon falls again with our WML Bro Gram and we had a lesson with the Fickle's who are members who just moved from Hawaii. They are super cool and it was a great lesson! :)

Saturday: We actually finished up the Dunlap's garden because we didn't have time the day before. It was super hot and humid. Like super humid. I don't enjoy the humidity at all, that's why I love UT. Then we did some more stop by's in the afternoon. Then we went to Hastings to pick up my repaired IPad from the sisters in the Cottage Grove area. That was quite a drive. But we have a couple people in Hastings to stop by, but no one was interested that we stopped by.

Sunday: Best Sunday ever!! We had 4 investigators at church. Like what? That never happens here. It was totally unexpected too. Heather Jensen our investigator came and stayed for all 3 hours. She loved it and just gave us a call and said " How do I become a member of this church? What do I have to do?" Hahah that doesn't happen everyday. So she will probably be baptized very soon. But we do not want her to get baptized if she doesn't understand why and what the church teaches. She needs to have a testimony before she joins the church. But the ward here in Red wing was so awesome to her. They all invited her to things throughout the week. It honestly made me tear up. I can't tell you how great this ward is! They are so loving, accepting, and willing to do missionary work. I never want to leave!! Earlier in the week we got a call asking if we could be in a parade on Sunday. A less active member I have never met is the one who asked us. We said we didn't know if we could because it was a Sunday. So we called President Forbes and he thought about it for a while but he said yes. So after church we went and we were passing out water bottles to people on the sides. It was so much fun!! We loved it! And because we helped her, she said that she is going to be in church on Sunday. And she has not been to church when I have been here. So Wahoo!! Then we went and taught a few people, one of our recent converts is an 18 year old Chinese guy who's parents are baptist and they are very anti Mormon. We listened to part of the CD that they gave him and it's so stupid and actually made us super mad.

We had a great week!! Things are crazy. Sorry that I am emailing late, today a lady asked for help to move out of her house and we said yes. We started at 9:00 and went until 6:00. So it was an all day project!! Love you all, have a great week!!

Love, Elder Anderson

Season 8 Episode 3

Hey everyone,

This week I do not have a lot of time. We are with the zone leaders in Hudson Wisconsin and we are doing lots of things today. I will let you guys know what's going on in the area and how everything is working out next week!

My boy Elder Rhees hit his year mark this past week. Time just keeps going faster and faster.

Love you all! Hope to hear from you next week!

Love,
Elder Anderson

Season 8 Episode 2: Elder Kershaw

Hello Family and Friends,

        Sorry about last week, we had P day with the Zone Leaders in Hudson, WI. We were playing basketball all day so it was hard for me to email haha. But this week was good.

Monday: Elder Moss packed up all his stuff early in the morning and we went to Hudson to spend p day with the ZL's and we played basketball all day. It was fun! That night I went on exchanges with one of my favorite missionaries Elder Oldroyd who came out the same time as me. We prayed about a street and we went tracting. We did not even have to knock on one door. There was a lady standing outside with her poodle and at first she was like " GO AWAY" , but then we just started having a normal conversation with her and we ended up sharing a message with her and getting a return appointment. That was awesome! :) Then we went with the other elders we were with and played basketball with a
bunch of kids. It was pretty fun! You could say they were all just a bit cocky haha.. ;) Too bad elder Lowe wasn't there, he would have been dunking and it would have been so sick!

Tuesday: We woke up early and the ZL's had there leadership meeting in Bloomington. I said by to elder moss and I went and worked in Oakdale again with the elders there. We did not do much.. It was really boring! Then I met Elder Kershaw and we went home and he got all settled in! That was a long day.

Wednesday: We started off by mowing the Voigts lawn and there yard is very hilly so it was hard haha. Then we went to sister Hamblins and helped her with some of her yard work. Bro Stanich from the Lake Marion ward came again and he took us out to eat at a place called Randy's. It was okay. It was great to see him though, he cracks me up haha. I had him meet bro Edwards and I got a picture with two of my favorite people haha. Then we had coordination later that night.

Thursday: We had a lesson with our investigator Aki. It was a great lesson. Jonny Banks the recently returned missionary came with us and he was great. We talked about the Book of Mormon. He told us he believes it to be the word of God. After the lesson we were talking and we think that he doesn't know what that means he needs to do if the Book of Mormon is true. So hopefully this week we can explain what that means in a little better detail. We went to Cannon Falls with Bishop. He had some people on his mind and we went out to see people. We stopped by 7 people, talked to 5, and got 4 return appointments. Two of them being investigators. We were so pumped after that!! Bishop
Johnson is a great bishop and he just loves missionary work. It is cool to see how the ward here has such a desire to share the gospel. 

Friday: In the morning we actually helped and investigator Danielle White with some yard work in her dads yard. Then we went to the Dunlap's and we were talking to them a little bit and then I started mowing there lawn, then all the sudden it starts hailing super bad and
then the wind starts picking up. So we all run inside and it's crazy winds and hail for like 25 minutes. Once it ends we go outside and tons of huge trees are blown into houses and cars and there was even a little fire. So the Fire Department came and it was just nuts. I will send you some pictures of it! WOW it was something I will not forget. So we ended up just staying there for dinner because on the weather it said there was going to be another huge storm. We shared with the two pamphlets and they want to watch meet the Mormons with us so that's cool.

Saturday: I finished the Dunlap's lawn. Then we went to the ward fishing activity, that was fun! We had a good time there! It was good for elder Kershaw to meet some families in the ward. Then we went to sister dorado's and helped her organize some things so she can move this Friday, she was super bossy and rude to us. Mostly Bro Edwards though. How could you be rude to him? He's like the nicest guy ever hah. Then we went to Lake City to do some finding, we didn't find much success. But we shared a message with the Coons family who I do not really know too well.

Sunday: well that night I didn't sleep like at all.. It was crazy thunderstorms and lighting. Haha so I got up in the middle of the night and just started listening to conference talks because I couldn't sleep. The lighting felt like it was hitting out yard. The house and my bed were shaking.. It was not fun at all.. Then we had church which was good! It was ward conference and Stake Presidency was there. They share very powerful messages. Heather was supposed to come to church but 10 minutes before she cancelled but told us she wanted to meet at 7:00 that night and so we said that would be good. 10 minutes before that she cancelled again. I was pretty frustrated! But as of right now we are meeting with her tonight!

Thanks everyone for everything! Love you all!!

Bro. Edwards and Bro. Stanich:

These are pictures of what the storm did:

Exchange with Zone Leaders:

Love,

Elder Anderson

Season 8 Episode 1

Hi Everyone, this week was okay. Elder Lowe went home :( I found out my new companion would be Elder Kershaw but I found out he wouldn't be able to make it until this upcoming week because he had a baptism. So I served with Elder Moss for a week. I don't have a lot of time this week, we are in Hudson with the ZL's for P day.. I will email you more next week. 

Love you guys!!