March 14

How was your week?

This week has been awesome. We got a couple new investigators, like 8 to be exact. hhahaha I love it out here.

And to answer your question before. My teeth are a little messed up and i think it;s from drinking soda haha so I stopped. But can you send me my Retainer i think it's in the night stand by my bed. in a box. YESSS I'm getting all your packages I love them. thanks for the gift cards too. If you send them Priority mail then they send them right away. But yeah getting mail is the best.

That's awesome that your almost done with the BOM.
I gave a talk on Sunday and we had 5 investigators there. It was really weird cause I was not nervous at all. My talk was on my own conversion story and I talked about the BOM and reading in 60 days as a mission. I loved it. And i brought up you and your reading and how reading the BOM can truly bless your life. I started to cry right when I brought up family. It was sad, but everyone really liked my talk. It was 25 min long I never thought I would be able to give a 25 min talk, but i loved it and we had a bunch of investigators there. This week was really good!!!

Is George getting baptized this week?

YESSSSSSS, He's getting baptized on the 18th and I'm baptizing him. I'm so pumped and nervous. It's going to be a great day. We had a lesson with him and Brother Crouse like 2 weeks ago when we committed him to be baptized and he said yes and at that moment I knew i was going to baptize him. I love the guy.

About my other Investigators:

Fernando i guess use to be in a gang and he has a bullet hole in his back and a bunch of scars from knife fights, so that cool and he really likes our visits and loves to learn more about Jesus Christ. He grew up in Oxnard. So pretty ghetto. Oh he's also been to jail and stuff. I llove the guy.

We have a new solid Investigator. his name is Sam Goodway we just got out of Prison in December he's not on parole or probation any more. He took the lessons in prison and went to church there. He lives with his Fiance and Sister and Mother. Very poor. I gave him one of my Shirts and a tie so he doesn't feel weird at church. He's like in his 30's with a baby. He is awesome and told us he wants to be baptized. So when your obedient blessings do come your way. Sam found us too. His future wife wants to be baptized as well. I love it.

Were also teaching a Navajo family. There really nice and we hope to help them strengthen there faith in Jesus Christ. I love them. It's a Family of 4 and I have been praying for a family to teach ever since I came to Peoria. So life is good here. I Love it.

How's your room mates?  Do you have just your greenie?

I just live with my SON. In a 2 bed room appt. It's pretty nice just in a little ghetto area. We hear the sirens and police everyday haha Its pretty crazy. I Love it though. Elder Carroll is doing really good though. He's kinda cocky, but he has nothing to be cocky about so its funny. Anyway I Love him.

How's your district? Are you having a good time with them?

My District is going really good. I went on Exchanges with Elder Scafer and learned a lot from him. he's crazy, but It's really good and we might get another sister in the district this transfer. So I'm excited.

Any fun activities?

Well i got to do a baptismal Interview so that was sweet. I love doing those interviews. Only a few people in the world hold that authority to interview someone to get baptized and I'm so glad the Lord has trusted me with that.

Funny story:

So we had a lesson and this is like 3 miles from our appt. And we locked our bikes up and went to our lesson. I come back and my front tire was flat. I was so pissed, so I called the other elders and they said they would pick us up. So we were waiting for them on the street and this big truck drives by and then backs up towards us. I was like sweet a member is going to help us or give us money or something. Instead it was a guy that just started bashing with us. So we just started going at it cause I was pissed anyways. He believed that Saturday was theSabbath Day and I asked where did you find that out and he said the Internet. i just started laughing and made some mean comments I shouldn't have, but he ended up taking a Book of Mormon and said he was going to read it. GOOD STUFF.

Are you playing bball everyday or exercising? Are you using the perfect push-ups I sent?
Do you want me to send you an ab wheel?

Yeah I'm using them. But the Ab wheel would be sweet thanks.

Thank you so much for everything Mother and Family.

I Love you!

Elder Trent Anderson
 

February 21

How are you?

Well this week was Great. I am doing great. I'm starting to get some pretty crazy tan lines and what not haha. We are starting to teach a lot more people now. Finally our teaching pool is big ha. We are teaching up to 7 people right now and they are awesome.

On Saturday I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and we went to my area. We extended 3 baptismal commitments. And all of them said "yes". So we should have some baptisms coming up. None of them have dates yet but that is soon to come, we are truey finding the Lords elect. And that is what I have been praying for since I have been here. So it is great and I know that our Heavenly Father answers our prayers. I just love this Gospel and everything about. It's so hard not to believe it's true. But that's why were here. This past week has just been awesome. I swear the Harder I work, even though I have no feeling in my legs and all I want to do is sleep, I am way more happier with myself. In my room I have a picture of Christ and underneath it I have written "Elder Anderson what have thee done to feed my sheep today?" It is so great that I'm able to tell Heavenly Father in my prayers that I gave it my ALL. I just Love missionary work it's that simple. Just watching people truly change their life around and strengthen there faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is awesome. I love it!

How are your investigators James and George? Any progress?

We haven't been able to contact James yet but George is doing awesome. We had the first lesson with him and he understands it all. He has such a sweet spirit to him, but he does talk a lot haha. The lesson was very spiritual and It went really well. We have another lesson with him tomorrow so I'm pumped to go teach him again.

We also got a couple more investigators. Fernando he is the man and we have a lesson with him tomorrow as well and he said that he would be baptized. We are also teaching the Garcia family and we have a lesson with them on Saturday. They are really nice people, Catholic but Good Catholics make good Mormons hahah. I love teaching people.

Anything funny, spiritual, inspiring stories?

Yesssss I fell on my bike hah. So there is this curb and then some dirt going up hill and another curd. I decide to ride up it, so I jumped over the first curb and I was riding up and about to jump the second curb and be aware there was a member up on the top with milkshakes for us. So i wanted to show off a little bit. So I went to jump over the second curb and my front tire caught the curb and I totally went over the handle bars. It was great. Except I kinda hurt my finger and bike hahah GOOD STUFF. I got a milk shake though and the member couldn't stop laughing haha.

Oh i also got a Valentine from this little Mexican girl that lives in our apartment complex haha she's like 7 years old and she gave me a chocolate heart and some stickers haha it was awesome.

I also have the biggest Crush on Tangled haha One of the members bought me a book and stickers and a pin of Tangled it was awesome. I love that girl hahahaha

Best drink ever- CHOCOLATE COKE at SONICS haha I get them every Tuesday with our Ward mission leader haha HE's awesome.

Love,
Elder Trent Anderson

February 14

How was your week?

This week was really hard and difficult at some points. It was hard cause we only had one lesson with an investigator so that was tough. We continue to work hard though, We are in finding mode cause a lot of our investigators blew us off. It's sad but they will have their time to come unto Christ, just not right now:(. But the good news about this week is "MY SON" (Elder Carroll) he's a really good guy and we get along. He likes to work hard but that's because he's new haha. We did a lot of finding and got 2 pretty solid investigators. I'm starting to get some pretty crazy tan lines. Summer time is going to kill me but I'm actually really excited.

We got into a little Bible Bash with a Women and I put her to shame it was awesome haha Probably not good, but she was asking for it. And it just wasn't the time to mess, I was having a bad day cause a lot of our appointments fell through. But we have to just keep working the Lord never took breaks in time of need. We teach this inactive guy, his name is Frank really good man and we just read the Book of Mormon with him. One night we went over he said " the spirit is always so strong with you guys and I have decided I'm going to go to church this week" and he came it was awesome. He only stayed for 1 hr, but that's good for beginners haha. I love serving and being aMissionary even though it is really tough. The Lord said "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth" I love that quote.

Any new investigators?

We have 2 new investigators.

James: he's a Free mason and he seemed really interested in learning more, so we will see how committed he is. But a great guy last time we met with him I helped him with his
changing his car brakes. haha I don't really know how, but I tried. It was pretty funny.

George: he is a great guy and we had a really good lesson with him yesterday. The spirit was there and our Ward Mission leader did a really good job. I love my ward Mission leader funniest guy ever. Brother Crouse, he takes us to Sonic every Tuesday after splits haha. But George is a awesome man and he is really interested about learning more and we have a lesson planned for this weds. I'm pumped.

What happened to the lady from Pete's baptism that told you she wanted to be baptized?

She is getting baptized on the 26th of Feb.I'm really excited. We're not teaching her though. The other missionaries in my District are though and they are great guys.

Does Pres Beck stress reactivating member as much as getting investigators and baptisms?

Not really big on the in-actives mainly cause that's the wards problem, but we have like 6 less-active lessons a week.


Are your wards really active or are there a lot of in-actives?

Our wards are super in-active its ridiculous. We have over 80 elders that are inactive. Crazy stuff.

How's the trainee doing? Who is he and where is he from?

My SON is doing really well. His name is Elder Carroll. He likes to collect rocks haha. He's from Pocatello ID. All of my companions are from ID i don't understand. He is willing to work hard that's what I love about him. We really don't have much in common, but we both believe in Jesus Christ which is good. Oh I pulled a prank on him Brother Crouse and I and Carroll were doing visits and we told E.Carroll that we were going to visit a crazy man and he is a Jehovah Witness haha But the guy was really one of our Ward missionaries and he just yelled at us and we yelled back and Elder Carroll was just freaking out, it was really funny. Then we told him it was just a prank haha I love it.

I also love teaching him how to contact people and teach. It's pretty crazy cause I'm pretty new, but i love it! Missionary work is awesome!

Elder Carroll also had to give a 15 min. talk on his first Sunday out in the field. I felt kinda bad for him.

How's your district doing...are they working harder and making progress?

They are doing a lot better and finally starting to trust me and listen to me. So that's good. We have doubled our contacts as a district from last week which is great. And I challenged everyone to extend 2 baptismal invites a day and they are starting to do it. So the district is doing really well.

What was your favorite moment of the week?

Well, I had cow cheek so that was pretty good. Next week I'll prob get the tongue haha gross.

But my favorite part of the week was definitely the prank we pulled on Elder Carrol. It was classic.

I love you and thank you for everything.

I love the packages too. 

Elder Trent Anderson