Pittsburgh Mission Memoirs

Well, this past week started as usual - We had a few appointments already scheduled, a few plans made ahead of time. As Elder Nelson and I looked ahead in our planners, we saw the brick wall of Specialized Training and a Zone Meeting looming later in the week, and Stake Conference hovering near the end. These events, while useful, we knew would limit our time to proselyte and teach lessons. I was excited for the change in scenery, though. It would be nice to get out of the usual routine.

Our investigators are... Well, starting to struggle for some reason. This week we went from 4 investigators with baptismal dates down to 2. Fortunately we are still teaching all of them, but they aren't progressing like they should be. I'll talk more about that a little later.

We did get to meet all kinds of really cool people, and had a lot of cool experiences. For example, this past Wednesday we had nothing planned. We had a list of things we needed to do and people we needed to meet with, but we didn't plan when we would do anything. When we actually got out, though, the first things we wanted to do all would happen in one apartment complex. First we needed to set up an appointment with Angelica. We knocked on her door, but she didn't answer. Then, lo and behold, the second person we needed to talk to, Nelida, comes walking up behind us. 'Eldares!' she calls, in her Spanish accent. We go over and chat with her, and she tells us that she's been reading the Book of Mormon we left with her, and that she likes it even more than the bible! Granted, most of this had to be told to me by Elder Nelson after the fact because she only speaks Spanish, but I was able to understand the part where she talked how much she liked when the book describes the Angel Moroni giving the gold plates to Joseph Smith. We set up an appointment, and then went back to Angelica's apartment.

We knocked again, and she poked her head out the window. We took care of what we needed to do, said goodbye, and began to walk over to the apartment of the last person we needed to talk to. Lo and behold: He came walking around the corner before we even took 5 steps. We were 3 for 3 (which almost never happens), and we hadn't even walked 25 feet.

We also talked to Victor that day. He's having some struggles, so his baptism isn't going to be happening for a while. He's still working hard to do what's right, though. I've seen improvement since I first met him.

Thursday brought about the first specialized training, where our mission President taught us. I won't bore you with the details (If you really want to know, we talked about Preach My Gospel chapter 10). Suffice it to say that it was a good training, and we learned a lot.

Now I get to the part where you start to understand the title of this post. This week we have met many of the Average Pennsylvanian. What is the average Pennsylvanian, you ask. Well,

1) Almost every Pennsylvanian is some kind of Christian. Most of them don't know which one though. Seriously, there are about 5 different churches for every denomination out here in Lebanon. No wonder Joseph Smith was so confused which church is true!

2) Because there are so many churches, Pennsylvanians are pretty tolerant of other religions. I cannot tell you how many people have told me "Just let everyone believe what they believe" and "Every church is true," and "I only need to believe in Christ." It makes things interesting when everyone believes in Christ and everyone is religious. Sometimes when we talk to people, they agree with everything we say. We say "We know that our church contains the fulness of the Gospel, and that Joseph Smith is a prophet," and they reply with "AMEN!", but when we ask them to take the lessons, they say no. And it seems like, although everyone has faith in Christ, nobody wants to listen to our message about him. Hmm...

Anyway, we had yet another training on Friday. This one focused on the Doctrine of Christ. I'll talk more about what I personally learned later (yes, you get to look forward to a sermon :p). When we actually used what we learned, a miracle happened.

We went over to teach Maria, who is a recent convert, a lesson. We were planning on teaching the doctrine of Christ anyway, but it turned out to be the best lesson we could have taught. You see, right before we started the lesson, Maria's nephew's fiance (I know, really obscure relation) came over, and actually sat in on the lesson. Eventually, the lesson began to be more focused on her. We taught everything, she understood everything, and before we knew it, we were inviting her to be baptized! We didn't plan on that. After the fact, Elder Nelson admitted he didn't know what came over him. Despite all that, she agreed. She has a date for the 31st of March. (That will probably change, because of General Conference, but she wants to be baptized. That's the big thing.)

We had a bomb shell the next day, though. We got a text from Angelica: she doesn't want to be baptized this week. It's sad, but after visiting with her yesterday, we found that she still wants to get a stronger testimony, and fix a few more things in her life. She also still wants to meet with us. It will take a little more time, but she knows that it's the right thing for her.

Anyway, it's time for the weekly sermon! The most influential topic of all of the training I did this week and Stake Conference we had this weekend was the Gospel of Christ, and how essential it is in fulfilling the 3  fold mission of the Church. Here's a question for you, and for everyone else: Do you know what the Gospel of Christ is? I've been surprised as we've visited members homes and asked them that same question how little they know about it.  As missionaries, our job is to teach it as simply as possible, and a good refresher is always useful for anyone. So, here it goes:

Well, there I go. Being all preachy. I hope everything is going well for everyone. Things are great for us out here. This Wednesday, mainstream Christianity celebrated the beginning of Lent, which is where you fast for something for 40 days. Elder Nelson has decided to give up his girlfriend; I'm giving up the mountains.

Well, take care everyone.

Love,

Elder Anderson

Hello, fair people of wherever you are reading this. Greetings from the sunny Lebanon, Pa. It actually has been very nice these past couple of days, with little rain or snow, lots of sun, and temperatures in the mid 40s most of the time. Not too bad!

First things first, our investigator with the closest baptism date: Angelica. She really is progressing well, and we are almost certain that she will be ready and prepared for her baptism on the 3rd of March. If all goes well, she'll be my first, official baptism. Naturally, Elder Nelson will be doing the actual baptism, because she knows him better, but it will be great to be present for that.

Victor is also progressing, but is still struggling to truly understand what repentance and baptism mean. He's a really funny guy who loves to make a joke and have a party. Vic has made so many changes in his life and is trying to keep most of the commandments. He just thinks that he can break a commandment every now and then and still be alright.Hopefully we can help him understand that when we are baptized, we promise to not break any of the commandments ever again, and to immediately and fully repent if we do break a commandment. He's getting there though.

The Galloway's are doing excellently. They're the ones with the three young girls. They recently bought a new home and are in the process of moving in. Maria is going to be setting some very strict but very spiritual ground rules which will make that home an excellent environment for Maria, Darren, and their three kids. I'm really excited to see how much they grow living in a more spiritual environment. Elder Nelson and I have already offered to dedicate the home, and will look forward to doing that when they get settled. The girls are progressing well towards baptism. We are really looking forward to that. I honestly have to say, that family is an excellent example to me of how a righteous family should be run. Maria is constantly trying to teach her children correct principles and sets a great example for them. Her rules, while they may be strict in some cases, really do help to invite the spirit and make their home a good environment. Like I said, I really look forward to what the Lord has in store for this family.

We got in contact with Jamie again. Before, we were having difficulties setting an appointment, but we actually were able to just run into him. He really is trying to question and understand the Gospel and the Church. Yesterday we went over and answered some of his questions. And when I say questions, I mean deep, mysteries of the universe kind of questions. He's been doing his research and has a lot of interest to learn more and gain more knowledge. Elder Nelson and i and answered his question the best we could, and always tried to tie our answers back to the atonement, the Book of Mormon, and prayer. He is still really excited about the Gospel and about our church, and, while we didn't talk about it specifically when we visited him last, he seems to still be excited to be baptized. His date is March 10th.

Then there's John. He's really working hard to quit smoking, and is doing... Well, not so good. He's smoking about 30 a day. We'll be visiting him later today though, and seeing if he's smoking less. Considering how far he's come, he'll easily be able to stop smoking. It'll just take a little effort.

Unfortunately, I have had to change my vision of missionary work just a little. I now realize how there will be many dropped appointments, many missed phone calls, and many disappointments. However, I am striving to obey all the rules with exactness, and to work as hard as I can for as long as I can. Like I said last week, Elder Nelson has been great. He always tries to keep us busy and working from the moment we leave our apartment to the moment we return. Our biggest challenge right now is finding new investigators. Hopefully during these next few weeks we'll be able to find more people to teach.

One fun experience I had: Last week for P-Day, we went out to Hershey and got to see Chocolate world. Honestly, it wasn't as cool as I expected, but they have a massive gift shop. If anyone has any chocolate or whatever that they want, I might be able to hook you up!

There was another funny thing that happened. We were tracting down this one street, and a young woman answered the door. We started to share our message, and she seemed to be interested to just listen when we were interrupted by a man who came up behind us: her father. Fortunately, he wasn't overly concerned about us talking to his daughter. He was more interested in what we had to say about priesthood authority. The best part about this guy was his accent: probably the most interesting Spenglish I've ever heard in my life. Here's a portion of our conversation:

Us: We believe that we need to have proper priesthood authority to be baptized.

Him: So yous saying that my bautizism wasn't right?

Us: Yes, that's right.

Him: Hmm... We'll, yous gotta tell the papa about dis!

Us: ...Uh, the pope?

Him: Yes! Yous gotta let everyone know about dis!

Us: Well, we kinda already let the pope know...

He's a great guy. We look forward to teaching him at some point. His work schedule is so ridiculous that it's hard to find a time, though. His daughter is interested in hearing our message, though. We'll be visiting with her later today.

That's one thing that I have to say about Lebanon. Everyone out here is Christian, and very, very converted. They all believe in Jesus, they all believe in the atonement. The biggest hurdle we have to get over is helping people realize that the gospel was lost and has been restored, and that we have priesthood authority on the earth again. Oh, and the fact that Mormonism isn't a cult. (Don't worry, only one woman argued with us about that)

To those of you who have been writing to me, I've loved getting your letters. As always, I love getting and reading letters. If you don't know what to write me, don't sweat it. Just write me whatever you feel like. I always answer every letter I get.
The Church is true. We're working hard down here in Lebanon. Cool things are happening.

Love,
Elder Anderson

Balom, the alarm clock of the devil, rang out in the early hours of February 6th. Elder Anderson rolled himself around. 2:00 Am. Time to get moving!

With all of his bags packed and everything ready to go, within an hour he found himself on a bus driving. Out of the MTC, out of Provo, past the mountains which had sourrounded him for his entire life. He waved as he passed his home town which he knew he wouldn't see for some time. After arriving at the airport, bags were checked, the missionaries in the group hurried over to the gate, and they awaited their flight. By 6:45, Elder Anderson was in the air, on his way to the next two years of his life.

We landed in good time and were greeted by the Assistants and the Mission President himself! President Topham is a fantasic person. He's the kind of person who you can tell cares very much about you from the very first time he lays eyes on you. As I came up to him, he called me by name without reading my nametag, and very sincerely said "Welcome to Pittsburgh."

The assistants were very friendly too. They were quick to inform us of a few important details about Pennsylvania. First and foremost: Everyone is crazy. Next, they all smoke. This, I soon found, was all too true. The first destination we were brought to was an overlook of the entire city of Pittsburgh. It was a beautiful view, but even up there, at the top of this hill, we could smell burnt tobacco wafting up from the city below. I knew then that, being an asthmatic, I have a treat ahead of me.

After spending the night in the mission home, we were giving some brief training and paired with our trainer. I watched as the other missionaries who came in with me were all paired with their new compainions. I was last of all. As you can imagine, my anxiety increased with every elder assigned. I finally found out my assignment: For the first 12 weeks of my mission, I will be serving in Lebanon (pronounced 'Leb-nun', no joke) with Elder Nelson.

Elder Nelson is a fantastic trainer. He's been out for about 6 months, and (thankfully) is a Spanish speaking missionary. He really knows his stuff and is very experienced with teaching and finding people to teach. He has a love for playing the piano, especially piano concertos, and has already demonstrated his skill many times to me. I am in awe every time I hear him play. He also is an excellent singer. He's from Colorado and has been a member his whole life, but you can tell that he has had his own personal conversion. He's also even more sarcastic than I am (really). I'm super excited to serve with him.

Lebanon itself is on the far east side of the mission, about as far east as you can get. As we were driving here, because of circumstances, I got to drive the car as our district leader, Elder Vallejo, rode with me. Elder Vallejo is from Guatemala and has been out for almost 2 years. He will be returning home after training Elder Rowzee. In fact, it was with Elder Vallejo that I realized that I was actually in Pennsylvania. We stopped for dinner at McDonalds, and he was telling me about my area. I thought to myself "I am sitting, halfway across the US, in McDonalds, with this Guatemalan dude." I'm telling you, that's a weird thing to think. Anyway, the first thing which Elder Vallejo told me is first that my area is pretty much the ghettos of the zone. The second thing he told me is best summarized by Isaiah. That's right! There are prophecies about my area! I'll let you look it up yourself: 2 Nephi 27:28. Enjoy!

I'm running out of time, so I'll have to summarize the rest of the week. We have three investigators with baptisimal dates already. One of them Angelica, is really progressing and has a fantastic testimony. It's easy to see how much she has changed her life already, and how willing she still is to repent. She should be baptized on the third of March, but we might do it sooner if she feels up to it.

Another, Victor, is supposed to be baptized on February 25th, but he is still having problems keeping some of his committments. He is super funny, though, and has a testimony. He just has a little issue with pride which needs to be resolved. I'll definitely have to talk more about him as his baptism comes up closer, but I actually know litte about him. I only met him yesterday.

Jamie is the final with a baptismal date, but I have yet to meet him. He is apparently progressing really well, but is really hard to get ahold of. We'll be seeing him sometime this week hopefully.

There is another investigator, John, who really has turned his life around since seeing the missionaries. He's been sober for two months now, and yesterday committed to stop smoking! We were shocked, considering that a few days before he was having a really hard time with everything and needed the smokes to keep him relaxed. If he can kick the smoking, though, he should be able to be baptized by March or April!

One of the recent convert families, the Galloways, have three daughters who have yet to be baptized. Their mom, Maria, is divorced and we still need approval from the dad. Her current husband, Darin, and she have been really trying hard to fix up their lives and stay on the strait and narrow path, and Maria really tries to teach correct principles to her daughters so they will want to do what's right too. It's been incredible, though, in the one week that I've been here, to see how much those kids have grown and progressed. The youngest, Ashanti, who is 9 years old really wants to be baptized and has a great desire to learn. The next, Ashley (11) is similar. Ashley isn't quite as hyperactive, but she pays attention to the lessons and retains what we teach. The oldest, Samanta (13) is having a harder time, mainly because of peer pressure at school and other things that come with being that age. We can tell that our message is helping them though. They should have a baptisimal date soon too.

The members are amazing too! We have yet to cook dinner for ourselves: the members are always willing to feed us and hear our messages. They are really excited about missionary work and are ready at all times to go out on splits to visit some of our investigators. In fact, one of the members gave us what seems to be a golden referral. The family they want us to teach is already reading the Book of Mormon and going to Mormon.org. They just need the lessons. The ward itself actually reminds me a lot of any other ward I've been in. The only difference is that most of the members are converts. I'm really excited to work with the entire ward more.

A few funny instances: The first day I was a real missionary (Wednesday), we went tracting. One of our appointments fell through, so we went to knock on some doors. We knock on this one door, and the guy who opened is started screaming at us without letting us get a word in edgewise. I was backing off, ready to move on when he told us to leave. My companion, though, insisted on asking him to hear our message. That's when he threatened to sic his dog on us. Fortunately, he was bluffing, but we got close to being chased by a dog!

We were able to meet a wonderful woman a few doors down, though. Her name is Jennifer, and she agreed to hear the first lesson. One problem: She really only speaks spanish. Elder Nelson was able to teach her the first lesson, though, and the member who was with us and I tried to bear testimony as simply as possible. But, at the end of the lesson, as she knelt down to pray, we could see her trying to hide the tears. She could already feel the truth of the message we were sharing. We have a return apointment this Friday. I'm excited to see where this goes.

We also had my first bible bash the day after. This guys name is Carl, and he believes he can go to heaven without being baptized. Sure he demonstrated great faith, but he failed to realize that when Christ says "Save a man is born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven", he means it. He thought that, like the thief crucified with Christ, he would "be with [him] in paradise" through his faith. That's when I explained the Plan of Salvation and the kingdoms of glory. He didn't like that and wouldn't hear it. We left on good terms though, when I complimented his testimony and he did likewise to us.

Another woman, Barbra, wasn't interested in our message, but was interested to tell us about all the times she healed someone or herself through Jesus. It was interesting to hear how through sheer faith, she was able to do so many incredible things. But as Christ said, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could move mountains." Despite her not being a member, I was encouraged my her testimony and faith. We might stop by some other time to give her our message. She probably will be willing to hear it.

If you've read this far, bless you for your efforts. Just one more story, which I think everyone should pay heed to. Last night, I went to the addiction recovery program. It was astounding to hear the stories of the people who had overcome addictions or were working to overcome them. In fact, it was because of the testimony of those at that meeting that John decided to quit smoking right away.

What I found most astounding, though, was the 12 step program which the church is using. These 12 steps really demonstrate true repentance. I suggest that everyone look up LDS Family Service's 12 step program to addiction recovery. Just look at the 12 steps and see what you think. You might be surprised how much we all can use those 12 steps in our lives.

Things are great out here. I'm loving it. It truly is a roller coaster, but already I can see the positive effects that I am having in other people's lives. I'm more excited than ever to serve.

As always, I love getting letters. If you want to send me a letter to my local address, or stalk me on Google Maps, use this:

 

Elder R. Alex Anderson

337 Cumberland St. Apt #3

Lebanon, Pa 17042

 

I know the Chruch and the gospel is true. I have to strengthen that testimony every day because of how many people tell me otherwise, but because of the effort I put in to strengthen it, I know more than ever that what I know is true. The Book of Mormon is the word of God, and as we follow it, we can eventually make it to the Tree of Life which can give us great happiness, just as Lehi and Nephi saw. I know that Christ lives, and loves me very much. He and my Father in Heaven are always willing to answer my prayers and are always willing to answer yours. And I know that we have a prophet who leads and guides this Church, and that he has called me to this work. May we all be qualified to serve in any capacity which we are called.

 

Love,

Elder Anderson