Week 5 ... MISSOURI

I made it to Missouri. It's super cold and there is freezing rain and everything's ice but it's awesome! Seriously there is no snow, just ice out here!

Hello family and friends, as you can tell my p-day is now Monday so that's awesome and feel free to email me back :)

So, Wednesday morning was the worst thing ever! Everyone heading to Missouri woke up at 4 am. We went to the travel office, got on a bus and they gave us instructions on how to get the bags of 30+ missionaries on and off a train, onto the trax thing, and to the airport, and I can tell you the whole thing was a mess. We had one minute to unload like 75 suit cases from that train and it was insane, but we did it. 

Anyways we got to the airport and checked in our bags and my grandpa GP was waiting there for me that silly guy we got there at about 7 and he had been there since 5, that little bum haha. But we got a good pic and I got to say goodbye so it was great!

After we got to our gate I called my parents and it was very much needed but the calling card thing they gave me sucked so bad cause it cut me off at 5 minutes and we were just about to talk about the good stuff! It was alright tho cause I had to get on the plane, so it all worked out.

The first thing I noticed when landing in Kansas City was NO MOUNTAINS! 

I have no sense of direction out here, but hopefully I'll get used to it.

After landing we met President Love and Sister Love, we grabbed out bags and headed straight to the temple took some pictures. The main things I noticed was that the grass was ice and it was 30 degrees but felt like -10 it's freezing here, after that we went to Liberty Jail.

We had lunch and they gave us a small tour of the Jail which was amazing! It's such a cool place and it had a special spirit, it was my first time there but it was awesome. The weirdest part for me was that we ate lunch next to the Jail and that not to long ago Joseph and his friends were thrown into the Jail for the beliefs him and I share and that wasn't too long ago, but being there gave me a greater appreciation for our Prophet of the restoration and that was a great blessing to be there.

After that we went to the Independence visitor center and that was pretty cool! I got some pictures in front of the sea shell temple. haha

We then went to the mission home and ate some dinner which was great and had orientations along with President interviews and I love President Love he's awesome and I'm excited to serve with him a lot. 

Transfers the next morning were pushed back a couple hours because of frozen rain, it's the weirdest thing in the world when the rain hits the ground it all turns into ice and everything is super slick and travel is impossible so we had to wait a few hours till heading to the Independence stake center which is right next to the visitor center to meet our new companion. 

My new companion is Elder Beck from Oakley Idaho and he's awesome! We ate lunch at a Mexican place called Ponchos where I got a breakfast burrito and headed to my new area with the Crooked River ward. It's in the boonies and is about 50 minutes from Independence. We dropped of my bags at our house, which really is a house cause we live with members, the Ratliff fam, which is brother and sister Ratliff and their two dogs. I've been told and now know it's true that we get spoiled cause they have tons of food, so imma get fat haha

After we dropped off the bags we met with the Cooperriders and they're super funny people.George made sure that I knew he was a big guy, he had me guess his weight and I was wrong, he's bigger than I am for now and that's what I can tell you. We also talked to his dad Harry and we all call him OTD, or Older than Dirt, just Dirt for short. He's like 84 and is a super funny old man. He challenged me to an arm wrestle which will probably take place next time I see him so I'll let you know about that next week. After meeting with them we ate dinner with the Ratliffs and went to bed so it was a good first day.

Friday was the ward party and Elder Beck and I spent the day giving out invitations to less active and trying to just talk to somebody but not a single success all day so that was rough. But the party was super fun! We had an international themed dance party that I didn't really participate in but was a good time and I got to meet the Bishop and a ton of members from the Crooked River Ward and they're all jokesters and messed with me a lot, but the whole night was a blast.

Saturday morning we got to go play ball which was awesome and then knocked on doors, visited members all day long, so I can say that I'm always tired.

Sunday was great though. I got to share my testimony during sacrament meeting and just got to have fun with everyone in the ward. After church I got to meet some of the Ratliff kids and their kids so that was fun and for dinner we ate the Cooperriders and that's when Dirt challenged me so I'm going to be working out my arm so I can beat him. haha

Wow this email is so long! 

Sorry about that everybody, but I guess you can tell that a lot went on this week and I'm a little overwhelmed and freaking out. 

I'm so grateful to be out here though and wouldn't trade it in for anything. It's starting to warm up so hopefully we will be able to teach some lessons this week or do some service, I didn't know this but there are tornadoes here so I'm super excited to see those in the spring haha 

I love you all and will talk to y'all next week!

Elder Andersen

I forgot to say that my last night in the MTC we saw Elder Holland in I'm going to be a good missionary because of it haha love you all 

2. Elder Engemann and I

3. Kansas city temple

4. Independence visitor center

5. Liberty jail 

Week 4 ... MTC

What's up everyone!

I'm heading off to Missouri tomorrow morning and I'm super excited. I'm waking up at 5 so I can board a plane at 10 so that'll be fun, but I'm just so ready to get into the work. 

Well my body is not ready, but my spirit is so I guess it'll work out.

This week was crazy. My last two trcs (practice investigators) went so good but both started out so bad. With our last TRC Jose, Elder Askelson and I looked into the room and nobody was in there so we waited 5 minutes, said a prayer and still nothing. Elder Askelson looked into the room after a couple minutes went by and said, "oh my goodness! I'm so sorry, we didn't see you in there" I thought he was being sarcastic so I straight up called him a liar, but he kept talking to somebody I couldn't hear in the room. So I glanced in and Jose was right there and he thought I was an idiot. He didn't really look at me the first half of the lesson and didn't like anything I was saying, but completely acknowledged Elder Askelson. At the end I felt the spirit and promised him some blessings from reading the Book of Mormon and he all the sudden opened up and the lesson ended so good, I was sad to leave him for the last time and that was a cool experience 

This past Sunday was by far the best I've had. We had our departure interview. The MTC President, President Martino and his wife spoke together on the impact of one baptism and one conversion for the devotional, and that was so good, but the highlight of Sunday was Elder Hollands MTC talk that we watched after the devotional it is titled "Missions are Forever" 

The best part of listening the Apostles here at the MTC is that they let loose and just say it how it is. The first two talks I watched were from Elder Bednar and they were really good but this last one from Elder Holland was just crazy! He warned of wasting your mission and said if your intention is not to work 100% every day then we should go home right now, and I'm not coming home so hopefully I wont let Elder Holland down. Being a missionary is the closest thing we can be to being an apostle other than actually being an apostle or general authority, this may be the only time in my life that I can have this kind of calling so my goal is not to waste it. 

Moses 1:39 "This is My work and My glory" as members of the church we must understand that this is the Lords work and that he's going to make it come about with or without our help but we just to get to be apart of the work and that's so amazing and such a blessing. After we understand that it's His work however then we must understand that in order to help we must do this work His way, D&C 50:13-14 "Preach my gospel" that whole book is meant to understand that we must preach with the spirit. Helaman 5:17-18 we can only teach with the power and authority of God, Mosiah 27:11-12; 18-19 the only way to convert people is to astonish them with the spirit. As a missionary or those with the priesthood we have the Authority of God, the power comes from out righteousness and our obedience. Elder Holland goes on to say, "Why is conversion so hard?'" and his answer was so profound, "Because Salvation isn't cheap ... why should it be easy for us when it wasn't easy for Him?" To truly follow Christ and to truly be converted unto Him we must feel some of what He felt

Pretty much other than all of that what I got out of the talk is that Every Mission is hard so I should not Complain.

Yesterday was cool because we just listened to mission stories from our teachers and one of them served in Iowa which is close to Missouri and it was so awesome, they both shared their testimonies and it was a sad but very spiritual day. 

I feel like this email is too long but I went to the temple this morning and had one of the coolest experiences ever, I read Ether 3-4 which is about the Brother of Jared seeing Christ and The Holy Ghost just testified that his experience was true and in chapter 4 Moroni talks how we can learn the truth of everything the Brother of Jacob saw. After reading I prayed for that witness and as I said before I did, I also prayed for a lot of other things and my words were not my own they came from the Holy Ghost. I know that Christ lives, I know that the Book of Mormon is true and the word of God and I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and also that President Nelson is a prophet. I've only been here for three weeks but my knowledge and love for the savior has deepened so much, and I will not waste my mission! I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

I love you all and thank you for all your support.

Elder Andersen

Pictures 

1. District with Brother Holmes

2. My cousin Elder Engemann

3. District with Brother Muir

Week 3 ... MTC

My messed up hand and pics from the trip to BYU urgent care 

I'm grateful for all the emails I have gotten from everyone! I feel your love and prayers in here. I'm getting more and more use to the schedule and I'm getting the hang of this and I really just want to get out to Missouri! 

The MTC is great though it's amazing to see so many youth all here to serve God, if they are not here for that then I don't know what they're doing because it's hard out here! But of course it's very rewarding, and I feel that I have grown more here than pretty much anywhere else. 

Okay time to get into the nitty gritty...

Friday I was playing a very good game of volleyball and my hand got wrecked by the ball and I sprained my thumb. If that sounds really dumb it's because it is! What's worse is that the clinic here had made me jump through hoops when all I need to do is not hurt it again.  I've been back and forth from the MTC clinic to BYU urgent care and tomorrow I am leaving the MTC to go to the hospital to go to a "hand specialist" so that they can tell me that my hand  is not broken, which I already know because my hand don't hurt that bad!

So yeah I'm going on a little trip tomorrow.

Sunday was awesome though. I became the new district leader and we watched a new Elder Bednar talk on obtaining the guidance of the spirit. The big question was,"How do I know what's from me and what's from the spirit?" Elder Bednars answer, "Quit worrying about it! If you want the spirit in your life just be a good girl or be a good boy, honor your covenants, keep the commandments and keep moving forward." He went on to say that we can't just sit there and expect the spirit to tell us what to do, we do what we're supposed to, and keep moving forward, and God will guide our steps and fill us with His words and by the end of it we won't know why we said what we said or know how we got to the place we ended up. That's because it's not us that said those things or lead us there, it's God through the Holy Ghost.

I've also been reading the book "Expect the Miracle of Conversion" by Hartman Rector Jr and also I've been reading a lot of his talks and I'm being transformed by his words! Reading that book gives me the faith to move mountains and I cannot believe that I'm related to him. Elder Rector and Elder Bednar are my motivators here at the MTC and I'm so excited to go out to Missouri.

We had to say goodbye to the district that welcomed us here today and that was sad. They are all heading to three different St Louis Missouri missions... so that's cool!  It's also super weird how fast you grow to love people on a mission. it's an amazing gift. When the Elders left this morning I was so sad because I grew to love them so much in only two weeks.

But I love all you guys and am so grateful for all the prayers, I pray for all y'all too. Talk to everyone next week and I'll tell of my experience at the hospital :)

Elder Andersen 

Week 2 ... MTC

Just a disclaimer I'm not good at writing these yet so I'm sorry in advance!

 But thanks for all your support and I love you all!

The first week of my mission has come and gone and that's crazy because it has gone by really fast, but I guess the whole mission goes fast. I can say that day one was weird, it went by so fast that I didn't realize what really happened until I woke up on day 2 and thought to myself, "Crap! It's all real." And day two I had major anxiety and felt really stressed out and Thursday night, I cried when I found my families letters that they had snuck into my bag. They caught me in a moment of weakness, and all the elders of my zone saw me cry so that was awesome!

Now time to talk about my zone, district and companion. So I love my district! The sisters outnumber us elders but it's alright we all get along and all just want to learn. My companion is Elder Askelson and he's from Washington and he's full of knowledge, he can tell you about any point if history so that's cool. Elder Kotter is the district leader and he's from Idaho, then there is Elder Platter. We've grown very well together here in the MTC and all 4 of us are going to Independence Missouri along with 4 of the 8 sisters in the district while the other 4 sisters are going to Vancouver Washington so that's cool! Okay so the other district in our zone, that have been here a week longer, are also going to Missouri but the St. Louis mission so that's really cool too! Elder Holmes, the other district leader, dumped ice on me while I was naked in the shower yesterday for the "welcome to being district leader" thing and it was supposed to be on Elder Kotter so that's also cool ha,  but our district's and zone are all really close and it has really helped me transition to the MTC life and I'm grateful for that!

The classes here at the MTC are cool but crazy and the teachers are all amazing! But they just throw stuff at you all day then you have another class in the night with a different teacher, and they pretend to be investigators so we can practice teaching and its so hard! So I thought until we had to teach some actual investigators which is really nerve wracking. I've been apart of the church my whole life but nothing is harder than having to teach someone who was never apart any real faith and it doesn't really seem that they care what you're saying. The first lesson with my first investigator went that way, what I learned is that if you just try to teach a lesson then you'll get destroyed by the pressure of teaching. My second investigator was different because I was more relaxed and focused just on the person we were teaching and what the spirit wanted me to say so I felt like Elder Askelson and I really connected with our investigator and he committed to pray and read the book of Mormon so that was amazing! Elder Kotter and Platter on the other hand got a sister to commit to being baptized in the first lesson!!! I don't know how that would be possible other than the church is true haha but yeah this is a special work and it's awesome to see success everywhere.

The MTC is an amazing place also it's all new and there are just inspiring pieces 

of art everywhere and they have really built this new MTC to create the best environment possible for spiritual growth and to truly prepare yourself for the field. My Presidency here in the MTC are really awesome too they have shown great love for me and support that I have really appreciated.

Fast Sunday was so amazing! The whole district fasted for all our families and I felt the love from all of them and grateful for all their prayers, but the best part was the movie at the end of the night where we watched a talk from the MTC by Elder Bednar called "The Character of Christ" where he talked about how we need to focus on others and not ourselves and become fully converted to Jesus Christ, a testimony is not enough because even those with testimonies fall away. We need to become converted! He talked about how in moments where everyone including himself would turn inward and be selfish, Christ would turn to others and be selfless and that is the Character of Christ. He shared Mosiah 3:19 several times, if you're not familiar then go read it.

The summary of the scripture is that the natural man is an enemy to God, and when we turn inward that's usually where we sin and give into the natural man. Repentance means literally to turn away, forsake sin so he compared that to turning outward towards others and to serve and love them, to develop the Character of Christ. If we learn to turn outward instead of in and develop the character of Christ and become converted unto Jesus Christ them we will NEVER fall away and that is exactly what I need to do out here on a mission, but you can all do it at home too.

That was pretty my week, I know that is kind of hard to understand so I apologize if y'all want to talk I can email till about 10:30 so love all you guys and talk to you all later!

Elder Andersen