Hi Family and Friends, I got to go back to Thunder Bay the place where I started the mission. Man it was so cool! I love those people up there! We were there from Sunday evening until Thursday morning. It was really fun! The 4 elders that are up there have all been out for only 6 months or less so it was fun to show them some people I taught.
On Monday evening I got to go to the Holden's home for dinner. They are like my favorite family in Thunder Bay. All the little kids are so cute.Tuesday we went with the south elders (my old area). A less active/part member family I tried teaching when I was here we had the opportunity of teaching. I found out the wife in the family got baptized within that time. It was super cool! Thunder Bay has had quite a few baptisms since I was there. I was with Elder McNeil who was in Maple Grove when I was in Medicine Lake. So I already knew him and it was super fun! He is a good guy! We were able to do some tracting and we did not teach anyone, but we talked to quite a few people. In the evening we had dinner with the Forneri's another family that I missed when I was gone. They are really fun! That night I got a call from Elder Checketts our vehicle coordinator and he told me that I have been speeding to much.. So my driving privileges are suspended until March 22, a transfer and a half.. So that was a little frustrating. The speed limits are all 30 MPH here in Duluth and it's hard for me to go just 30.. Oh well, I guess I have to pay the consequence.Wednesday I went with Elder Gabrielson who is the DL up there. We had a good day. We taught a sweet lesson to this African family. We read 3 Nephi 11 when Christ appears to the Nephites . We talked about baptism when Christ teaches how it needs to be done. It was a really good lesson! We then ate at the Wigg's who are a really great family. I love them! Then Thursday morning we headed back to Duluth. We were driving forever to get here. We had a lunch at a member who lives in the middle of no where. It was good!Friday, Saturday and Sunday we had some cool things happen! We went out finding a referral and as we were getting out of the car, we saw this girl across the street. We both looked at her and then we just continued walking to our destination and we both felt prompted to go and talk to her. We ran across the street and we started talking to her and we were able to help her carry her groceries into her apartment. We found out her name is Ken and she is 20 years old. She is really nice and we have an appointment with her this Friday! She is super solid.Something I don't think I have mentioned in the emails I have sent out is that here in Duluth we have a YSA. So this past week we went to the YSA family home evening. It was fun! There is not too many YSA here that are active, but there are a lot of them to go and find here in Duluth. It has been pretty fun working in the YSA. Each week we attend institute and family home evening. I really enjoy it! Young single adults are super open about learning about the gospel or at least talking to us, so it's been pretty fun.For an update on our investigators. Joe Nelson has been driving all around for work the past week. We have been texting him and contacting him that way. This week we should have a lesson with him though! We told him to go listen to a talk called "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox (If you have not heard it, you need to listen to it thisweek). We have wade Kassing as our investigator, he is doing well. Not progressing too much! Other than him we dropped all of our investigators. We really are going to start over pretty much with investigators. We just need some new ones who will progress and who are prepared!I love the Duluth area. It has been fun working here so far! I can't believe it has almost been a month of serving here already! Have a wonderful week!I'll send photos once I get my camera back! Hopefully later today!Love,Elder Anderson
Hello everyone,Another good week here in Duluth. We had a lot of exchanges this week which was good. We went on exchanges for two days in a row in Virginia & Aitkin.We drove to Virginia on Tuesday morning. I went on exchanges with Elder Lowell. One of my best friends! We had a really cool miracle in the evening. We were looking for a less active member walking around at about 7:30 at night and we couldn't find the house, so we were kinda just standing in the middle of the road and this guy sees usthrough his window and waves. He walks out and starts talking to us, we then ask him if we can go share a message with him, he said yes. We had a great restoration lesson with him. He is a great guy and I hope the Virginia Elders continue to teach him and see him enter the waters of baptism. It was super fun being with Elder Lowell. That elder has helped me a lot!Wednesday we drove to Aitkin, MN to go on exchanges with the elders there. I went with Elder Williams. The Aitkin area is really slow right now, so our goal was to help those elders have some sweet miracles and teach some people. We went out trying to see some of the people on their NAC list and we talked to a couple of people. We taught their investigator who has a date set! We felt that we helped the elders, it was cool!We had a super cool lesson with a guy named Joe Nelson. He had referred himself to missionaries a while ago and the missionaries never contacted him. So we called him up and he asked us if we could meet up right then. So we met him at a coffee shop and he was super nice and we had a great lesson. We had a Book of Mormon sitting on the table he was like " what is that book? I'm interested in reading it." We were so excited to hear that. So we taught him what it was and he wants to meet up again. He travels a lot for work and he said that he even will call us to have lessons over the phone. This man is solid! I'll send you a picture of his house that is right off the freeway that says "God Loves you."Sunday after church we drove 4 1/2 hours to Thunder Bay. We got to stop by some people who missionaries don't usually get to see because they live so far away. Our area covers all the up until the Canadian border. Thunder Bay and Duluth are the two biggest areas in the mission! And I have the privilege to serve in both wards.Today we are in Thunder Bay and we are going to be here until Thursday to exchange with both sets of Elders. I hope that I can help them and get them in some doors that I used to get in when I served here in Thunder Bay. I love being here and going on exchanges. This transfer has already gone by so fast! Love you all! Here are some cool pictures:
1. A non member who has investigated for 20 years in Aitkin.2. On the way to Virginia we saw this sign.3. Hockey Hall of Fame.4. Lake Superior.5. The investigator Elder Lowell and I Found.6. Lake Superior again.7. Our investigators House8. A sweet dragon in Crosby.
Hello Everyone, I will be emailing a good email this week. I apologize for not updating you very well in awhile. A lot has happened since I have been in Duluth. The zone here is a lot more spread out then the Anoka Zone. We don't ever see the other missionaries in the zone! This was my first zone and the beginning of my mission when I served in Thunder Bay. When I was in Thunder Bay I always thought that it would be cool to serve in Duluth and here I am. Elder Johnston is my companion and we get a long really well. He loves sports just like I do. We both are very motivated to do the work and we have a lot of fun while doing it! He is from South Jordan, UT and he played football and soccer. He has a scholarship to play football and the University of Utah. He will be the kicker for them next season! Crazy thing is we actually met before the mission. When we won the state championship in baseball he was there and we talked for like two seconds after the game. Now we are companions! The Duluth Ward is really great. Our Ward mission leader Brother Faerber is really cool and I am excited to continue to work with him! We have a set of sister missionaries, a senior couple Elder & Sister Lindsey, and another set of elders that work in our Ward half the time. It has been pretty fun! Here in Duluth we get a truck to drive because of how steep the hill is here. I really enjoy driving it haha! We do not have a lot of investigators we are teaching right now. We do have some solid ones though! Anthony is one of our investigators who is super cool. I met him on Wednesday! He has like no money. But he still invites us over and he is like an incredible chef, so he makes us food. He loves the church and is reading the Book of Mormon, he is also reading the Doctrine & Covenants and loving it! He is a good guy. Elder Jones one of the AP's served here in Duluth like 3 months ago and he came on exchanges with me and we went to Anthony's and his girlfriend stole all of his stuff because they broke up officially and she called the cops on him and in the middle of our lesson the cops showed up at his apartment and it was pretty intense. This past Monday we drove down to Bloomington for P day to hang out with the AP's and then go to MLC on Tuesday. We went to the Lakeville chapel to play basketball with some other missionaries! That was really fun! We had some good basketball going! Tuesday we had MLC and that was really good. Some big changes are happening in missionary work around the world which is exciting! We have a missionary broadcast on the 25th and they will be announcing some new changes! I am not allowed to say what they are but I am pretty excited for these changes. I saw Elder Newbold and it was really good to talk to him again even though it had only been like a week or so. MLC is always really good, president Forbes shared a lot of good insight on certain things and I always get a lot out of it! After MLC we had a two and a half hour drive up to Duluth and we drove the STL's with us. We helped one of the sisters write her "Dear John" Letter to her boyfriend on a mission hahah poor guy. It was funny though! I am very grateful that I have this chance to serve here in Duluth. This is an area a lot of missionaries want to come to. I feel very blessed to be here! The only bad thing is, this week it is supposed to get down to -25 degrees and with the windchill -40. Now that is cold! Lake Superior makes it a lot colder here. The wind off of the lake, man it honestly just hurts. You can get frost bite if you are outside for 10-15 minutes.. How crazy is that? Right now it is not too bad. But later this week is going to be bad.. All I can say is please pray for me ;) hahaha!I can't believe that it is 2017 now. I hope that you all have set some good goals and have evaluated the past year! I have really tried to figure out what I can do to improve this year. I am excited to see changes that I can make. The savior will help us with these changes that we desire to make! I know that he can help us! Pictures1. AP's coming for an exchange in Duluth.2. Elder Newbold and I got caught in the Sister Picture at MLC3. We went to a baptism for a little boy Andrew in our Ward.4. I fell asleep on the bed and Elder Johnston took this picture hah.The rest of the photos are pictures from Duluth
Hey everyone, I do not have a lot of time this week to email! I apologize for that. Our baptism did not go through this week. It made us really sad! The Towah's will be baptized eventually. I am going to be transferred to Duluth on Wednesday. I am very sad to be leaving Elder Newbold but we will still be best friends even though we won'tbe serving together.I will be serving in Duluth with Elder Johnston who is also from South Jordan. Anyway hope you had a great Christmas! Love you all :)
No time to write, love you all! Have a good week!
Hello Everyone,
We had a really good week. The snow is falling and it is pretty cold outside. It is currently 2 degrees, with windchill it is -11. It really feels like Christmas season now, which I actually love. This week was a good one. We had a great district meeting Tuesday, Elder Newbold and I gave a training from chapter 2 in Preach my Gospel. It was a good meeting. We had a lesson with Antoinette and her boys. That lesson went really well. We were reading 2 Nephi 31 and Elrad a 12 year old was taking lots of notes. He was writing things like "The Doctrine of Christ is the way to salvation" I am amazed with this entire family every time that we teach them.
Wednesday: We had a basketball game The Grapes (Youth) Vs. The Raisins (Adults). We were invited to play and we played on the grapes team. It was super sick! We ended up losing.. But it was fun to be with a lot of the members in the Ward. We had a lesson with our investigator Johnny after the game. We took brother Willoughby and he was perfect for him. He related the gospel really well to him and was pretty bold. Johnny is really progressing. :)
Thursday: We had a district meeting with the Weaver Lake District. We went to the Brooklyn Park chapel and it was an incredible meeting. I felt the spirit very strongly and was motivated to work! Then we went on exchanges with Weaver Lake. I went with Elder Weissinger in our area. We started off by tracting for about 45 minutes. No one really answered. We did talk to a lady who knew about the rule of 3 and said that we could come back when her husband is home. We then had a lesson with Todd Barberis. It was great! That man continues to amaze me and it makes me very happy to see how much he is reading from the Book of Mormon. We had a pass off lesson with the Crystal Elders after that. Elder Weissinger is from California and talks more than I have ever really heard someone talk hahah.. To be honest it was like a one way conversation of him just shooting a bunch of information into my head hahah. To say the least at the end of the night I was very tired and excited to sleep. Elder Weissinger is a convert and I really love that Elder.
Friday: We exchanged back in the morning after studies. We had planning and accountability in the early afternoon. We had a lesson with Boimah, one of the sisters investigators. It was a pass off lesson because Boimah was kinda being creepy to the sisters and we just all felt like it would be better if we taught him instead.
Saturday: we had coordination in the morning with Brother Gruber and the Sisters. We had service with Dave Smith. He made really good pancakes which I loved! We had a lesson with a new recent convert who moved from Virginia a couple of months ago that we never met. His name is Jerry Nyumah, we had a lesson with him and when we got there he had 3 roommates there as well, we invited them to come a long and listen to the lesson. We shared the #LightTheWorld video and then taught the restoration from that. They all committed to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. We were super excited about that! We then had a lesson with a less active member who we had never met before, Michael Taylor and his roommate Preston. We shared the #LightTheWorld video and again taught the restoration to Preston while Tyler Driskill (Recently Returned missionary) talked to Michael. It was really cool. The Ward Christmas party then happened. It was really fun! I love this Ward! Leroy Williams then came joint teaching with us to Johnny, but he wasn't there so we took Leroy home.
Sunday: We had Ward council in the morning, after Ward council we got a text that was a referral and at first I was really excited but then we looked who it was and it was Leroy Williams a recent convert who doesn't remember a lot of things. He referred himself on Mormon.org because he wants to meet with us like everyday. We went joint teaching with him the night before hahah. He is so funny! We had our investigator Steven there at church. Sister Jones brought him and it went well. After our Sacrament meeting I had the opportunity to interview someone for baptism that the weaver lake elders are teaching. His name is Femi and wow was that a cool experience. He is very ready for baptism! :) Michael Henstrom is a 18 year old in the Ward with down syndrome and he is one of the best people ever. He was telling everyone in Elders quorum how much he loves them. He is a bit hard to understand but he's amazing! Steven our investigator after Elders Quorum goes up to Michael and puts his hand out like darth Vader does when he is choking someone out and he actually puts his hand on his neck and starts saying "In the name of Jesus Christ I command your throat to be opened, your voice and tongue to be loosed. In Jesus name I pray amen. Now say amen Michael" it was one of the weirdest things. He is a very interesting man! After church we had a lesson with Daniel Hansen. He is really doing well and since we met him a month and a half ago, he is doing much better! We had dinner with the Lamprechts another sweet couple in the Ward. The Minnesota Mormon Chorale came to the stake center for a fireside and it was a really cool experience. They are a miniature Mormon tabernacle choir. We brought Steven and Leroy to that! It was incredible.
I cannot tell you how much I love being a missionary especially during this Christmas time. It makes me so grateful for the savior and everything he has done for us. His birth is why we celebrate Christmas. We need to always remember that He is the reason for this season. I love this gospel and it makes me so happy to go out and share it every single day. You will be blessed and your testimony will grow as you share it. I love you all and have a great week!
1 Nephi 8:12
1. Weaver Lake Ward Party.
2. A funny video elder Newbold made haha
Love, Elder Anderson
Hello Everyone,This week has been a really good one. Lots of things are going on in our Ward! I especially love being a missionary at this time of the year. The new #LightTheWorld video has been so fun to share with members and nonmembers.We had exchanges this week, I went with Elder Kershaw (a former companion) in maple grove. We had a fun exchange we biked around and talked to some people in their front yards. We were able to learn things from each other and it was great. It felt like we were back in Red Wing together. :)On Thursday, we had MLC in Bloomington. We had a discussion on how we can set a culture of finding in our mission. We also talked about how we can improve the obedience of missionaries! It was one of my favorite MLC's I have been to. Elder Newbold and I were talking after and we figured out a lot of things that we can improve on and what we can help the Anoka Zone improve on. Then we had a lesson with Antoinette, Ednet, and Elrad. We lanned on reading 2 Nephi 31 for the lesson. But we felt prompted to share the Mormon message "Mountains To Climb." It touched them and brought them to tears, we found out some things they are going through. We testified of the power of prayer, Gods love, and the Savior. It was great! I seriously love these people so much. To see them progress in the gospel is just an amazing thing to witness. We then had a lesson with Todd Barberis. That man has changed so much in the past two months, it's crazy!Friday we had our Christmas zone conference in Elk River. I conducted the meeting and we got some trainings from some other missionaries that were really good. We got to watch a movie with President and Sister Forbes. We watched Chariots of Fire, I had never seen it. Itwas good! We gave President and Sister Forbes a gift from the Anoka Zone. We all made a short video telling them thank you and Merry Christmas. I will send the video to you so you can see it. It's really great. Then we went and saw Brother Nunelly. He's a great guy!Saturday we had coordination with the WML Brother Gruber. Then we had service with Dave Smith. It was pretty cold, we helped him move buckets of dirt. He's a good guy! We had a lesson with our investigator named Dago. He is from Mexico and so we brought the Hermana's with us to the lesson so we could pass him off to them. It was really cool to be there and here the sisters testify in Spanish. I enjoyed that a lot! We had dinner with sister jones, Leroy, antoinette, and her two boys. It was great! Sister jones is seriously so amazing. Any investigator, less active, or anyone we talk about she says " can I invite them over for dinner? " or "can I come with you to the lesson?" We were asking sister jones why she is so amazing and is so missionary minded. She then shared with us a story back when she lived in Alaska. She had a friend who was not a member of the church and every once in awhile her friend or sister jones would bring up the church but kinda in a joking manner. Anyway, she never actually tried to share the gospel with her. Her friend ended up passing away and at the funeral they were saying a prayer and sister jones just had this overwhelming though of "you never actually shared the gospel with her." She broke down to tears and said that from that point forward she would do everything she can to share the gospel. She tells the story a lot better then I can! She is just a great example to me and to all members of the church.Sunday was awesome. We had a great fast and testimony meeting. We had many people we are working with come to church! We had a lesson with Steven, that was a little frustrating. Then we had dinner at the Henstrom's house. We watched the devotional at Brother Gruber's house with Leroy and the sisters. It was great! I love the mission. Have agreat week!
Love, Elder Anderson
