Pittsburgh Mission Memoirs

For those of you worried if the poor, starving, missionaries in Washington, PA are... poor... and starving, don't. We are certainly not all that starving, especially after the generosity of all of the members out here:

Yeah. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to gain 200 lbs. this Christmas season, seeing as Elder Colvin doesn't eat any goodies. Seriously. ("Well, if you aren't going to eat all these goodies, who is?"  "Elder Anderson, I think you know the answer to that question.")

We met an interesting gentleman this week. His name is Mohi. He referred himself, so I gave him a call.

"Hello...?"

"Hi. This is Elder Anderson. I'm a missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day...."

"Ah, yes you beautiful person. It is so much an honor to speak to you this wonderful day. I have heard much about you and your church, the Mormon, and Joseph Smith, oh I'm so sorry about what happened to him, it's a true tragedy, the heavens weep over him. And Brig-man Young, he is a hero! A true hero! A yes, thank you for calling, you beautiful person. I was just calling to request that you and your bishop would honor my request to grace me with your presence. I am available in the early afternoon. Feel free to stop by any day. Thank you so much, you beautiful person." *click*

Okay...

So we stopped by at the address listed, went inside the apartment building, up the elevator and over to his door. I wound up my fist to give his door a knocking, but heard voices from within:

"So, if you wouldn't mind following along, I'll read this part here: 'The bible is instruction given from Jehovah to His prophets. 2 Timothy says All scripture....'" Yep. He was meeting with Jehovah Witnesses, and by the sound of thing was in the middle of their first discussion. As tempting as it was, we chose not to interrupt their meeting and stopped by another day.

We get there, and he sits us down and starts to tell us about his plans for doing a 'Galaxy Gallery' of 1000 hand-drawn pictures. And he wants a picture for the Mormons. ...Okay... I'm not really sure where all of this is going to go. But he certainly is one of the most interesting individuals I've ever met.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm super stoked for Christmas. For real. I've been able to do some of my favorite things of Christmas here and there too, which has been super happy-making, like caroling for Salvation Army, and helping a member wrap Christmas presents for his son. And of course, Christmas day will be spent with an awesome member family, and I get to talk to my family. 

I'll close with an awesome thought that my brother sent me today. A lot of people are looking forward to spending Christmas at home with their families, having big dinners, lots of presents, etc. At the same time, though, there are many who have no choice but to go without during Christmas. Trust me, I've met many of them and been in many of their homes. It's humbling and makes me grateful to see how little they have and how much joy that little bit brings us. As my brother told me, Christ was homeless on the first Christmas. There is something in that which is both profound and vitally important to us.

Another thought: My parents have a VHS tape which has a bunch of old Christmas cartoons on it (really old, like circa 1990). I looked forward to December each and every year so I could watch that tape over and over and over - it was my favorite! One of the cartoons is Garfield's Christmas special. He, Jon, and Odie go to Grandma's house for Christmas dinner and presents and such. One of the last lines of the show though really strikes me. After all is said and done, Garfield exclaims "Christmas isn't about the giving, and it isn't about the getting. It's about the loving." Isn't that so true? Isn't that the biggest message of Christmas, Christ's life, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and all the Prophets? Love God and love everyone else. On this hangs all the scriptures. How true it is.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Love,

Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim

PS. If you want fantastic, non-stop Christmas music, mormonchannel.org has got it!

We went to a Christmas Party, put on by probably one of the oddest members of the entire church (he's certainly 1 in 14.5 million!) He invited a goodly number of 'distinguished guests' to his lovely home, and did a wonderful job of being a host ("Here's a plate of candy for the little boys.") We were planning on having dinner there, so when we arrived and found that it was mostly snack food, we were a little disappointed, but decided to make the most of it. Somebody finally arrived with what looked like real food - a slow cooker full of little sausages covered in what looked like a rich barbecue sauce, which, by the way, is one of my favorite things. I didn't want to make a scene, so I restrained myself from darting over and helping myself right away. My companion got there first and, after trying a few, pulled me aside. "Those sausages - they aren't very good." Oh. Well, thought I, I'll be the judge of that! I took one of his sausages and popped it in my mouth. In three words, he was right. It was really.... bad. Bitter, nasty. It had a bite to it at the end. "Yeah. You were right. That was nasty."

Bear with me, I'm getting to the point. No sooner than I said that, than two ladies came over and were talking about these little sausages: "Ooh, they're so good. So bold, so much flavor. I love how mild it is at first and then WHAM! It hit's you with the Jack Daniel's." You couldn't have staged it any more perfectly. Elder Colvin and I looked at the remaining sausages on his plate, and then looked right at each other. I asked him how many he ate "Well, probably not any more than 6." I was surprised he was able to choke down so many. It was impressive. We went over to one of the ward members who was there and asked her to try one. Sure enough, it was loaded with alcohol. In her own words "Wow! There's enough booze in those things to kill a horse!" 

Interestingly enough, I've broken the Word of Wisdom (unintentionally every time!) more on my mission than any other time of my life. Between second hand smoke, the suspicious cups of tea which investigators hand me, and then this experience, I've certainly had quite enough.

Saturday was probably the most interesting day for us. A few days before, a member told us to knock on his doctor's door, so we did. The house itself was pretty incredible, with scriptures engraved in the front steps, and window markers declaring it to be "The House of the Lord." I was impressed from the get go. We knocked. The man and his wife stepped out and were more than kind to us. They themselves were 'born again' and had been saved, but were very polite in their conversation. At the same time, they were trying to plant seeds of doubt by asking us some very anti-Mormon, anti-Joseph Smith questions. We responded to the best of our ability (when the wife pulled out how at the end of the Book of Revelations it says "Do not add to or take away from this book" and said that the Book of Mormon was an addition to the Bible, I lost my temper and totally destroyed her argument with the counter "It says specifically 'The book of this prophecy.'" and the question "So is it talking about the Bible, or the Book of Revelation only?" To which her husband said "Prophesy and Revelation mean the same thing." Yeah. The Church is true. So is the Book of Mormon. Anyway, long tangent. Back to the story.), but regardless of our kindness and our sincerity, they wouldn't have it. They both told us their (very long) stories of how they came to God, but wouldn't let us share how we know the Book of Mormon is true. When we offered to leave them one, the husband hesitated, but the wife said immediately "Oh, we have one." (Come to find out, the member who told us about them already gave them a Book of Mormon, but they gave it back two days later...) That was an annoying experience.

Right after, though, we decided to stop by Shane again. He's the gentleman who we met two weeks ago and who let us right in. He did the same this week, and sat us right down, and said "Okay, guys. What do you have for me today?" We taught him the entire message of the Restoration, to which he did the same thing as before - agreed, shared his insights, asked his own questions, and was pretty much the coolest guy ever. He asked to say the prayer at the end, and said one of the nicest things: "Thanks for bringing these guys into my life at this time when I have been asking for guidance." Oh yeah. That means the world to me.

On that note, we had a similar experience with Gretchen. At the end of our visit with her this week, she asked her son to pick somebody to pray. He pointed right at her. She had no choice. After a little bit of choking to find words (it's obvious that she hasn't prayed like this in a long time) she came out with saying "Thanks for bringing the church back to me and for letting me know that I am still remembered and loved." I'll say it again, the Church is true and for sure there is a loving God in heaven who hears the prayers, even the idle thoughts and wishes, of every one of his children.

I'll share one more story. We went over to a members house for dinner. It was a very Mormon house - lots of temple pictures, prophets, Christ, etc. Oh, and 7 kids ranging from 15 years old down to 1. With that many young kids, it was easily pandemonium in that house. So many kids making noise, banging on the table, running around, playing. Can I say this, though? That home was so peaceful. So incredibly peaceful. There was so much love and tenderness, even though the house was a mess, the kids were everywhere, it was still peaceful. The Church is true. So is the Gospel. The Spirit in that home was real, and it was there because the family loves God, Christ, and each other. I learned a lot from that experience.

Well, folks. Thanks for everything. Happy Hanukkah. Well, it was last week, but regardless...

Love,

Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim

So here's an interesting experience. Like anywhere in the church, there is a great structure in missions. The president has two Assistants who preside over the Zone leaders. Zone leaders steward over District leaders, who are in charge of individual companionships. As it happens, one of my Zone leaders happens to be Elder Nelson. Remember him? From way back when in Lebanon? As it turns out, he was my first companion here in PA, one who I respect very much and have always considered to be one of the best companions of my mission. Well, being District leader, I get the privlage of doing exchanges with the Zone leaders, and I got paired with good ol' Elder Nelson.

 

It was a blast, certainly one of the highlights of my week. I was only his second companion, so when we were together first, he wasn't super experienced, and I was just brand new. It was cool to see how far both of us have come. I was super impressed at how much more humble and loving he was. It made me wonder what changes have happened in me. Anyway, like many of my stories, I don't know if it means a lot to yinz, y'all, all of you, etc., but it means a lot to me.

 

A few updates. We stopped by Dave on Saturday and had a little visit. He's still really down about his whole situation. He was okay with us stopping by, but still doesn't feel ready for us teaching him and his family yet. I don't know what needs to change. But at least he's okay with us being there for them. I have a little secret, too. Don't tell him, but we're having the Young Women come by with cookies. We'll see if that helps the situation.

 

Dan is great. Actually, I think he's more in shock than anything. In his personal life, things are declining, but he's holding on to the Gospel and our visits, probably because it's the only stable thing he has to hold on to. He would appreciate being kept in mind and prayer too.

 

Cool story. So, Brian got baptized two weeks ago, and ordained last week. This past week, we came by and had a visit with his mom, who came to the baptism. She really enjoyed that experience, and at the time agreed to have the lessons with us. Well, we get there and come to find out that she had read the ENTIRE Gospel Principles manual. Holy cow. We asked her "What questions do you have?" She went off for a little bit about how she always seeks the Holy Spirit to show her what is truth and what isn't. As far as I could tell, she never told us that she found any errors in the manual. Which is to say, she believed it to be true. She did tell us, however, that she didn't like our hymns. Not much we can do about that. Well, we went on with our lesson, and get to the end, and invite her to come to church with us, seeing as she's never attended. She paused and replied "We'll see." She herself is a staunch Presbyterian, and pretty active too. I was pretty sure that was just code word for "Nope." But lo and behold, Sunday rolled around, and here she was, walking in with Brian and his wife. My jaw dropped to the floor. Better still, she seemed very happy to be there.

 

We've met a cool family, less-active. Her name is Gretchen. You don't have to have her tell you she's ex-army to see it. Everything about her says "Action." She was in Somolia, Afghanistan, all over the place. Her career had to end, though, when she had her son and she made the decision to become a stay-at-home mom. Because of her frequent moving as being part of the military, she drifted from the church. Since then, some things have happened in her life which has led her to "go to war with God", so to speak. In essence, the first time we met with her she told us that he has no intention of stepping into a church, let alone going to services, until things got straightened out. She really is great, though, and her son as well. He's super shy until he gets to know you. At that point, he starts pulling out all of his toys, shooting you with his fake guns (and he fully expects you to die a horrible death whenever he does)... it's adorable.

 

Well, we had a Ward Christmas Party this past weekend. Guess who showed up? A bunch of ladies from the Salvation Army (they were invited. Washington's Salvation Army loves the Mormons). Guess who else? Gretchen and her son! And they loved it. As it turns out, her neighbors across the hall are active members and neither they nor Grechen had any idea. But they found out, got the invite, and she came. It was a good start to the spiritual healing that will need to take place.

 

And that's about the gist. Have an awesome day, week, month, Christmas... Everything!

Love,

Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim

My week has been like driving down a Pennsylvania road - up and down, lots of twists and turns, and bumpy the whole way. (Yeah, that's pretty much just like the roller coaster analogy - I just didn't want to be cliche.)

Monday night we had a visit with a gentleman who referred himself through Mormon.org. His name is Dan. He came to us mainly because he lacks purpose in life, he's been having marital problems, and he wants some good quality friends. He said that he talked to a friend out in Utah. I'm almost certain that her response was "Ask the missionaries! They can help!" He's a really quiet guy, a self-claimed introvert, but man, when you get him talking, everything he says is profound. We sat down with him and asked him about his beliefs. He basically quoted for us most of the points of the first two lessons we teach in Preach My Gospel. We were a little stunned, blown away even. We invited him to a meeting of a few church members the following day, which he came to. As we had our study, he participated fully, and said that he got a lot out of it. He's super sincere and asks amazing questions. And after our last visit, he told us "You know, these visits have really been helping me a lot. Really, thank you guys so much for all that you've done for me." That really blew me away too, considering we've only had three visits with him. For the sincere in heart, though, the Gospel has an incredible effect.

We had a visit with Dave, Peggy, and their daughter Hope this past week. We really wanted to focus on baptism because, while Dave and Peggy have wholeheartedly accepted the invitation, Hope hasn't been around long enough for us to invite her. She usually goes to her room when we come over. Well, this time, she stayed. We talked to her directly and invited the whole family to enter the waters of baptism. And you know what? Hope accepted! I was kinda surprised, and also kinda nervous. I don't want Hope to make a decision too hastily or because her parents want her to - I want her to choose for herself. The best way to help her would be to have them meet up with members of the ward. So we had them over for dinner at a members house and then the family went with them to the youth activities. As far as I could tell, everything was going great.

We got a call on Friday. It was Dave. He told us that his wife and daughter were the victims of a crime and that until the situation was resolved, he didn't want us to be stopping by or visiting them. I was crushed. It was a hard decision to make whether to say "No, Dave. You need the gospel now more than ever." or "Okay, Dave. Call us if you need anything." I chose the latter, expressed my love to them and that was that. So, with that being said, if you could keep that family in your prayers, I'm sure they all would be very appreciative.

Saturday was tough. Elder Colvin and I planned an amazing day. We were going to head up to a town a ways away from Washington, work there all day, and have a blast. We had tons of appointments set up, tons of backup plans and everything was in place for us to do tons of work. Alas, even the best laid plans fall through. Our first appointment canceled right as we pulled into the parking lot. Appointment after appointment fell through, backup plans were being exhausted left and right. By the time we got to our last appointment, we were exhausted. And we still had half an hour before we were supposed to be at that appointment! So, with nothing else to do, we decided to knock doors. Door 1: Nothing. Door 2: A lady putting up Christmas decorations. She took a card, but really wasn't interested. Door 3: Nothing. Door 4: A man stepped outside his house to put some mini pumpkins on his porch. We go over to talk with him and without a moments hesitation he says "Hey guys, do you want to come in and sit down?" Thinking back, that has happened to me twice so far, and both of those people were crazy. But we were desperate, so we said "Sure." and walked on in.

I was sold to the genuineness of this guy when he told us "Don't mind the mess, the wife is coming home from work soon and I want to make sure that the house is picked up. It seems as soon as I clean up the kids come and mess it all up again." A family. Nice. We sat down, and he started asking questions - What is your Church's organization like? Are you really an international organization? So wait, you believe in a prophet who speaks to God? So, you think that Jesus came to the American continent, right? Then the kicker: "Well, this all pretty much lines up with what the Bible says." YES! FINALLY SOMEBODY THAT GETS IT! We gave him a Book of Mormon right then and there, told him what he needed to do to know if it is true, said a prayer with him, swapped contact info, invited him to the Ward Christmas party, invited him to church... the only thing we didn't do is invite him to be baptized, but we'll be seeing him again for sure so I'm sure we'll get around to it.

Oh, and to top it all off, as we were about to leave he said "Oh, I'm sorry guys. I didn't ask if you wanted water or coffee or something." I love it when people do that.

So, that's the week. When I was in the middle of it, it felt pretty horrible. It was a rough week. But looking back, I can see how much the Lord has blessed us. It seems like every time we turn around, there's another blessing coming our way. It's kinda hard to see the glass half empty when you stop to count your blessings, and remember that it was the Lord who gave you the glass and the water in the first place!

I'll close with an exerpt from this past conference.

 

"They never did fall away and surrendered 'the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more.' To set aside cherished 'weapons of rebellion' such as selfishness, pride, and disobedience requires more than merely believing and knowing. Conviction, humility, repentance, and submissiveness precede the abandonment of our weapons of rebellion. Do you and I still possess weapons of rebellion that keep us from becoming converted unto the Lord? If so, then we need to repent now.Note that the Lamanites were not converted to the missionaries who taught them or to the excellent programs of the Church. They were not converted to the personalities of their leaders or to preserving a cultural heritage or the traditions of their fathers. They were converted unto the Lord—to Him as the Savior and to His divinity and doctrine—and they never did fall away.
A testimony is spiritual knowledge of truth obtained by the power of the Holy Ghost. Continuing conversion is constant devotion to the revealed truth we have received—with a heart that is willing and for righteous reasons. Knowing that the gospel is true is the essence of a testimony. Consistently being true to the gospel is the essence of conversion. We should know the gospel is true and be true to the gospel."  ~David A. Bednar, "Converted unto the Lord"
Have a fantastic week, everyone.
Love,
Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim

P.S.

I want to add one thing, now that I'm thinking about it. Our bishop is a funny individual. He got up and gave his testimony about the Pope. He said the Pope wrote a book about Christ, how he probably wasn't white like we depict him in our paintings, that Christmas wasn't when Christ was born, but that it was more likely around Easter time, and other stuff like that which we as Latter-day Saints already know and believe. Well, as it turns out, people flipped. As he told this story, the only thing that came to mind was "So much for the infallibility of the Pope."

The point the bishop, and the Pope were trying to make is that we shouldn't focus on pictures of Jesus, we shouldn't focus on Christmas. These things are good, but they are only to point us to the true thing to worship - Christ himself. That kinda goes along with what President Monson said in his Christmas Devotional talk yesterday - Don't worry so much about the business and busyness of the season - focus it more on Christ.