May 29, 2012

Missionary Slim is learning Spanish? (Week 16 in Pennsylvania, Week 16 in Lebanon, PA)

"ELDEEEEERS! What's happening?!?"

"Nothing much, Hector. It's our P-Day."

"Then you are coming over here to have pizza!"

"Oooookay?"

*click*

Bro. Hector Morales got himself a new apartment recently, and ever since has opened up his doors wide to us missionaries. He's always inviting us over to have pizza or ice cream and all kinds of stuff, and such was the case this last Monday. We took the opportunity to ask Hector for some help teaching some Spanish investigators later on during the night. He accepted.

We had a wonderful lesson with our first investigator, Kenia. She's met with the missionaries before, but really hasn't gotten into the Book of Mormon or come to our church. And she only speaks Spanish. I was able to teach a little bit with the limited Spanish that I know, but thankfully we had Brother Morales there to help teach and testify. By the end of the lesson, her heart was very softened and she committed to come to church and all.

The second lesson was with Madeline and Wilfredo. I don't know if I've ever mentioned Wilfredo. He's Madeline's husband, Madeline being the grandmother of the three girls who were baptized a few months ago. Wilfredo isn't a member, and has always had problems keeping the commandments. He's heard the missionary lessons over and over again, but cannot quit his addictions. We went over to see him with Hector. Wilfredo told him that he keeps abusing his addictions because of all the pain he has, from all of his gunshot wounds (this guy has had a very rough life, and a lot of really awesome scars). He asked us for a blessing of healing, which we administered. He was very happy and contented as we left.

We came back a few days later, this time without Hector. We sat down to read the Book of Mormon, and he told us "I don't feel no pain."

"What?"

"Ever since you gave me that blessing, the pain is gone."

Wow. We were blown away. He's working his hardest to repent, and he certainly is doing a great job of it so far!

This week, I met the most eloquent person in the world. No joke. We pounded on her door, and she answered it almost immediately. I began with a little small talk to ease things up -

"Hello, Ma'am. How are you today?"

"Thankful. How might you be, gentleman?"

I hesitated for just a moment, taken aback. "We're doing great."

"That is truly blessed."

I hesitated again, and then just drove through into our intro. She listened patiently, and then explained to us that she was a born again christian, but she would still be willing to visit with us.

"God be willing, we shall surely meet again!" she said as she closed the door behind us, leaving us scratching our heads.

 One final interesting story. Sad, but it has a good ending. We went to visit a less active member. Actually, a completely inactive member. His name is Merv, and when I asked a ward member about him, they said "He loves his records, and he loves his beer." Well, that was definitely the case when we ran into him last Friday. He was hosting a neighborhood keg party, and had two guests there already.We walked up and he recognized us immediately. "Hey guys!" he said, waving us over. As we got talking, and his neighbors realized who we are, they started asking questions - good questions. The kind of questions which people who are looking for the truth ask. We excitedly gave them the two copies of the Book of Mormon we had on hand, and gave them the promise of reading, praying, and getting an answer.

Then Todd showed up.

Todd only wanted to get in an argument. As he started asking questions, he was asking bad questions - the kind of questions which people ask to tear down the church. He was even looking up Anti-mormon stuff on his iPhone to get ammunition. We withstood, though, and answered every question posed at us. It got to be to chaotic though - we couldn't even testify before he would beat us down, and we needed to get to another appointment. So, I stood up on the step, held up the Book of Mormon in my hand, and bore my testimony:

"If this book is false, then Joseph Smith was not a prophet. If this book is false, then our church is not true, and if this book is false, then I am wasting two years of my life. But I know this book is true. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet, and I know that this church is true. And I know that you can find out for yourself. Read it. Ponder it. Pray about it. You will get an answer."

That shut him up. Merv burst our laughing, and poured another beer. We'll be seeing Merv again on Wednesday. Hopefully, his two neighbors come as well. They knew that my words were true.

Have a great week everyone! The church is true!

Love,
Elder Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim
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May 21, 2012

Missionary Slim meets John or was it Jon, oh whatever (Week 15 in Pennsylvania, Week 15 in Lebanon, PA)


I'm sure you all remember John. Of course you do. I talk about him in nearly every post. Well, we're still teaching him and he's still trying to quit smoking. The reason I bring him up is because we actually started teaching another John, who I'll call Jon so we know the difference. We met Jon on the street, smoking (like most other Pennsylvanians). As soon as we started talking to him, he told us he was trying to quit. "This is my first cigarette today!" He told us. He invited us over to meet with him. When we did, he told us about his smoking. He said "I'm down to half a cigarette!" We taught him about the Book of Mormon and the restoration, and he loves all of the things we're teaching. He has an incredible testimony of Jesus Christ and of the love which the Savior has for him, which really has helped me to boost my own testimony. We asked him to be baptized, and he said "Absolutely" right away! We've taught him most of the lessons already, and we only met him a little over a week ago! Before every lesson, he told us how much he was smoking - "I'm down to one puff a day!" and finally "I haven't smoked at all today!" Jon will be baptized next month.
 
Speaking of people who are going to get baptized, our cambodian family finally accepted the invite! After we gave them a cambodian Book of Mormon, they started reading it and really praying to know about it. We asked Rebecca, the mom, what she thought about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and she told us in her delightful accent "Oh, yes. I know this is the word of God. I know only a prophet could translate this." We were super stoked! That was exactly what we wanted to hear from her! We explained priesthood authority and invited her to be baptized. "But I was already baptized! You want me to be baptized again?" "Yes." "Oh. Okay!" Her and her son, Sam, should also be baptized some time next month!
 
We were walking down the street past Victor's house. (Victor, you'll remember, is an investigator who we have since stopped teaching) Elder Blake hasn't met Victor, so I pointed out his home and mentioned that we might get to meet him sometime. No sooner than I said that than the phone buzzed in my pocket. I looked at the text message. It was from Victor: "R U outside my house?" I stared at the phone. I looked at his house. His blinds were closed. There was no way he could have seen us without looking out the window on purpose. I replied: "Yeah, we are. Do you want us to come over?" He said yes.
 
He told us he was just glancing out the window for no reason when he saw 'these guys in white shirts.' He misses our visits and coming to church and everything. Apparently, he recognized the changes which we brought into his life and wanted to keep going down this path. He's still as prideful and stubborn as ever ("I like my coffee! I like my beer!") But he still has the tiniest desire to change. We'll see where this goes. Needless to say, though, this couldn't have just happened for no reason.
 
I've really learned a lot about the Atonement this week. I think I say that about every single week, but I really learned about it this week. Starting on Monday, and going through the entire week, I've had example after example of the Atonement and the power that it has in our lives. It truly is the thing that holds everything together - our lives, our joy, our salvation, our families - without it, all of these would cease to exist.
 
We had a speaker in sacrament meeting yesterday. He was a shortly returned missionary from another ward, and he was called upon to speak about what he learned from his mission. He said the one thing he learned the most was about the Atonement. He quoted 3 Nephi 27:13-16 (Which all of you should read - over and over again) and bore powerful testimony about the restoration - not the restoration of the church, but the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is to say, the restoration of the knowledge of how much Christ has done for us. I am so glad to have the knowledge that I have. Without it, I would be lost.
 
My job as a missionary is to meet people, and as I've met people, I have seen how their testimony of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ really affects their lives. Those that truly know their savior are polite, nice, and have happiness. Those who don't are bitter, cruel, and unkind, and are not happy. The Gospel of Jesus Christ truly changes us. It transforms us into something better. It makes us what our Father in Heaven wants us to be - and that is happy. It makes us happy.
 
I wish the best for all of you. Thanks for your support. It really does make all the difference!
 
Take care!
Love,
Elder Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim

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May 14, 2012

Missionary Slim learns a new lesson (Week 14 in Pennsylvania, Week 14 in Lebanon, PA)


I have learned something this week - when a new missionary comes into an area, the entire area is turned upside-down. Elder Blake's presence in this area has caused all kinds of things to happen, both good and bad. Most of what happened was completely out of our control, but I can say we've had a lot of amazing miracles.
 
Take Spanish, for example. Elder Nelson was a Spanish missionary. I am not. This is a Spanish-speaking area. In fact, one part of Lebanon is called "Little Puerto Rico" simply because of how many Spanish Speakers live up there. Needless to say, as I have mentioned before, a lot of the time we were on the street, Elder Nelson would just talk to the people in Spanish while I would wait for the conversation to finish. Well, Elder Nelson isn't here now. And Elder Blake doesn't speak Spanish.
 
This is a problem.
 
Fortunately, I was able to pick up a little bit of Spanish from Elder Nelson before he left. Unfortunately, the only thing I know how to say is "How are you doing?" and "Can I give you a card about the Book of Mormon?" That's about as much as I dare say, because if I try any more, I might say something bad like "I hope you have a terrible day!" or "We are bananas from the Church..." Nobody has really laughed at what I have said yet... just given blank stares.
 
I think I have tracted more in the past week than I have ever tracted in my entire life. We needed to. Our teaching pool took a pretty hard hit this week when we dropped another 4 investigators. So we took to the streets to find more people to teach. Of course we were met with a lot of "Not interested", "We're *insert religion in here*", or "GET OFF MY PORCH!" But for every 20 of those, we were able find someone who was sincerely interested. A lot of people are looking for the truth, they are just disguised as people who don't look very interested.
 
We were tracting up this one street one day when I saw a door on the other side of the street. I was immediately impressed to go to it. When we got there, I saw something both very funny and very confusing: "No visits from Mormons." It was a polite sign, and I would have respected it, except for the fact that the Spirit kept telling me "You need to contact these people!" So, I left a card. My reasoning was a card didn't count as a visit. We left, feeling very justified.
 
We came back a few days later to find the sign was taken down. Curious, we walked over to the house. The owner came out to greet us. "Here!" he said, handing us some generic Evangelical tracts (those are papers or pamphlets which talk about bible verses. These ones in particular talked about being 'saved'). He told us that he took the signs down because he realized that we were just trying to spread the message of the Gospel, and thought that he shouldn't stop us from doing what we think is right. We had a great chat with him, didn't get a return appointment. But that's okay. The seed is planted. (We did notice, though, that signs had gone up on the house across the street, which we did knock on, saying "No Mormons!" Oh, irony.)
 
You know those awesome stories that you hear about other missionaries, but could never happen to you? Well, it happened to me. We had an appointment drop, so we went to a street nearby to tract. We knock on the first door. It opens. The father comes to the door. We barely have time to introduce ourselves before he says "Come in!"
 
"What?" I say, a little shocked.
 
"Come in! What, do you want to stay on my porch?"
 
So we went in. He seated us down, introduced us to his two kids. His wife was out working. He told us about how he is Catholic by name, but really doesn't have much faith or much knowledge of the Gospel. He recognizes the sins that he is committing and wants to change them. He wants to find the truth. The more he talked, the more our jaws dropped. We had a lesson right then and their about the Atonement, set a return appointment, and left with a skip in our step.
 
We also had three run-ins with people who turned the tables and preached to us. One of them was a crazy JW, who we really didn't pay any attention to (she went on about nuking the wicked with a-bombs), another guy who honestly was preaching to us something he truly believed in (some evangelical minister who called himself a prophet. My impression was that he was more of a fortune teller), and one man who truly was on a mission to destroy the church. He was very polite, but his words towards us were certainly filled with venom. He basically called Joseph Smith a fraud and defamed everything we stand for and believe in. The funny thing - he was constantly contradicting himself. We didn't even have to do anything. We didn't point any of those contradictions out, but that only gave me a greater testimony of the truth.
 
One more cool story. This one is about Ed. Ed is a less active member who I've been visiting since I got out here. He's agoraphobic, nervous, is always sick with something, and is most certainly OCD. We always have to do the same thing when we visit him - read one chapter from the Book of Mormon, one chapter from the Bible, and one chapter from the D&C. His house is a shine of stuff, and is also a shrine of mold, so he's actually been living with his sister, who is not a member, on and off.
 
Well, we went tracting one day in a new neighborhood. We knock on a door. A man comes with a sweatshirt over his head and one eye poking out the head hole. I was so confused that I choked in my words and couldn't say anything. The the man pulled down the sweatshirt. It was Ed, being strange. The house we had knocked on was his sisters house completely by coincidence (or was it?). As we talked to him, a car pulled up - his niece. She got out and rushed into the house, and Elder Blake poked me. "That was that girl we set up an appointment with earlier this week." What? She came back out, and sure enough, it was her. When we set up the appointment, we knew that she had an uncle who is a member, but we had no idea it was Ed. We also had no idea that she would be there in that neighborhood that day. We also found out that if we had tried to call to set up another appointment, she wouldn't have been home because she was going to Pittsburgh for the weekend. So, we set something up for this coming week, and let her go on her way.
 
We had a lot of very cool things happen this week. Like I said last week, the Lord does answer prayers. I've been relying on prayer so much this week, and every time the answer comes. The Atonement is real. It truly can change us, if we let it. We really do have a loving Heavenly Father who wants us to be happy. And I know that this is truly His true church, the truest of all the churches, with the fullness of doctrine and the authority of the Priesthood. And I know that all of us can overcome any trial we might go through. It's possible. But you just have to Believe in Christ and Believe Christ.
 
Take Care, everyone!
Love,
Elder Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim
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May 7, 2012

Missionary Slim makes a confession (Week 13 in Pennsylvania, Week 13 in Lebanon, PA)


"...and Elder Nelson will be serving in Harrisburg Walk with Elder Lucio. Now go where you need to go." The missionaries in the transfer meeting began to shuffle where they were assigned. The Zone Leader, Elder Brutinel, finished reading off the list of which missionaries would be going where and who their companions would be. The missionaries were getting together with the new companions that were already in the zone, and those that would be going to Pittsburgh to transfer began moving to their cars. In the midst of all this commotion, hand went up.
 
"Yes, Elder Anderson."
 
"Uhh... Where do I go?"
 
Elder Brutinel took a look at his paper. He looked down at me. He looked at his paper again, and then scratched his head. "That, I do not know."
 
My new companion wouldn't be in my area until 7:30 that night, and I needed something to do for the next 10 hours. After a lot of shuffling, and a lot of waiting, I finally got paired with - guess who - Elder Rowzee. Yep. I went off to work with my old MTC companion out in Hershey, PA. Him and the Elder from the second companionship in Hershey, Elder Kartcher, and I went out to visit their investigators. Our first visit was to Bonnie and Tom.
 
Bonnie is a recent convert who literally has a billion cats. Okay, not quite a billion. But I swear, those cats come out of everywhere! As we were talking to them, the point came up that Tom, who usually comes to church, made it in two weeks. After a little bit of prodding, we found out that the concern was with Bonnie. "It's my cats," she said, "I'm worried about them! They're like my children! I'm worried that my house is going to catch on fire, or somebody's going to break in an hurt my cats. I need somebody to watch over them while I'm away." Yep. She really loves her cats. After a little bit of counsel, she told us she would pray about it.
 
Also, I do need to make a small confession. While we were in Hershey, we had dinner at one of the members there. We sat down at the table, and our hostess comes out with some kind of brown drink. "It's lemonade mixed with ginger ale!" she assured us. We all filled our glasses and took big drinks - I drank mine all the way down. Pretty soon, the pitcher was empty, so our gracious hostess took it back to make some more. A few minutes later, she came back out, frowning, with the bottle of lemonade mix. "Uh oh," she said, and then read the label out loud: "Green Tea Lemonade." Our jaws dropped. She just filled our glasses with regular ginger ale after that.
 
That night, I got back to Harrisburg to pick up my new companion. There he was, sitting outside the church... next to a brand new Toyota Corolla. That's right! I got a new companion and an new car, and can I say, driving it is most choice!
 
But that's beside the point. My new companion is named Elder Blake. He's been out for about 6 months now, is originally from Las Vegas, Nevada (sin city itself!), and is a super great missionary. He really knows his stuff and I definitely have a lot to learn from him. Things should definitely be improving in the area with him here.
 
Just so everyone knows, Maria is doing much better. She still has a long way to go, but is definitely improving. Thank you so much for your prayers on her behalf. I know that they make a difference.
 
I'll be sure to share many more stories and experiences next week. But for now, I'll just leave you with something that I learned this week. Prayer makes all the difference. There are some times when I am in a situation where I know that I am supposed to be feeling the spirit, but for whatever reason, I'm not feeling it. But the moment I begin to pray, the spirit fills my heart and I can feel that when I testify, the spirit bears witness to those around me. That is why, as missionaries, we are encouraged to be praying whenever our companions are teaching. That way, we will always be bringing ourselves in line with God's will and will always have the spirit with us. It just adds so much more meaning to the words "So, when life gets dark and dreary Don't forget to pray!" And Christ always said "Ask, and ye shall receive." I know that promise is true.
 
Take care, everyone. Be good!
Love,
Elder Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim

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