Zone Conference & playing the piano

We really enjoyed President and Sister Anderson's training at zone. The night before Zone conference the assistants had us role-play our training to them just in case we had to change our training. It was a good thing because  we had to make a lot of changes to our training to make it more focused for the missionaries. We really felt that teaching this new way is a higher way of teaching and that the missionaries really can benefit from teaching this way, as well as their investigators. 

Elder Brownlee is awesome! He is helping me to take over as senior zone leader if that is the case. He has really let me take control this last week and I have seen how much of a difference I can make as I actively participate. I have struggled to be more confident at times and I have learned how much of a difference it can make when I am confident verses unsure and not confident. 

I am grateful for the chance to be here in Gillette and I love the missionaries here!  They are awesome

I lost my wallet this week, actually 2 weeks ago, and I am canceling all my cards and stuff. 

Dennis finally got confirmed a member of the church. He got baptized last week,  It was great. 

Also it was really warm this week and we loved it this week. I know back home it wasn't fun but on the mission when you have to bike because our car is in the shop it is great to have warm weather! 

Last night we had a lesson with Roy Crowder and he asked me to play the piano for him. It is a really old dusty piano, but I played and he just cried because of the spirit he felt. There was a famous pianist (Josh wright) who used to be a zone leader here and he played for Roy about 6 years ago.  Now every time we go to teach him I play the piano and he cries every time. 

I also got your package! Thank you so much! I was very grateful for the Nutella :)

Love Elder Anderson 

Working hard in Gillette! Dennis's Baptism picture

We are so excited for zone conference tomorrow! We have prepared well and have worked well together as a zone leadership for what the missionaries need at this time. 

Our area is starting to slow down a little bit. We are trying so hard to keep all the investigators we had, but because our car is in the shop, we don't get to appointments as fast because our area is so big. But, we have great members who will take us most of the time, so we are very grateful for them. We had to take care of some disobedience and drama this last week in Gillette. 

The 4th ward elders were teaching an investigator named David in our area and we didn't hear about it until last week and he wants to get baptized this week. Our bishop talked with them and told the Elders that David can't go to their ward since he lives in our ward boundaries and we are still trying to fix the whole situation. We don't have a car this week so we are on bikes. It is a great week for that, nice and warm. I think it reached like the upper 50s this week like the whole week and it melted all the snow. I am glad I don't live here in Gillette because there is no reason to live here except to make money and that's it.

Dennis, who was baptized last week,  didn't show up for his confirmation on Sunday. We will get him next week. We finished our exchanges last week and this week and it was a blast! We love all our district leaders and all the missionaries in our zone. Thanks for all you do back home for me. I am thankful to be on a mission and for all the blessings I have seen. I will let you know how zone conference went and tell Kaylee she will be in my prayers!

I love you all!

Love Elder Anderson  

 

Dennis's Baptism

This week was great and very busy. We did 3 exchanges this week. I exchanged with elder Mobley, elder Edwards and elder Nuffer. I went to newcastle which is a small town 100 miles outside of Gillette. Elder Nuffer is a new missionary from arizona. He has lots of fire power and he is ready to work. We tracted for 3 hours and we had a blast. Elder Edwards was my zone leader in Casper for 9 months and now I am his zone leader and we get to go on exchanges because he is a district leader. 

While I was in Sheridan, I saw Whitley Beard at the institute class we had with all the YSA.  We have some great missionaries in this zone. The Sheridan district is doing amazing right now. they are obedient and they are finding lots of new investigators. 

I baptized Dennis on Saturday and it was an awesome experience. He had to be dunked twice because he was scared. He cried and felt the holy ghost during one of the talks.  Elder Brownlee and I are without a car for 2 weeks because it is in the shop getting fixed. We are getting along great in our companionship because we are willing to work things out and make it work.

President and Sister Anderson are coming for zone conference next week and we have to prepare a training. I am excited, and I love this work. I know the Lord is hastening his work and I have a testimony of hard work and obedience. I know if you are obedient to God's commands you will be rewarded and you will be happy in life. 

Love Elder Anderson

This last week was we were in charge of the Zone training meeting held in Gillette. The training we presented was about role plays. We prepared for 3 days for ZTM. ZTM went really well! We had much participation and lots of positive feedback. We had a very spiritual training on roleplays and had a funny training to lighten the mood at the end. It was pretty scary in front of all the missionaries (28 in the zone), but I had a great time! It is awesome to see all the missionaries. We went to Rapid city last week for pday to receive our training for ZTM and we had 30 minutes to do our pday stuff. 

This next week we have baptism. I am going to baptize Dennis who is the 70 year old man I talked about earlier. He is very old and doesn't remember the things we taught very well, but he has a change of heart and we had our mission president interview him just to make sure he was ready. 

Well I am jealous that you all are going to Targhee every week. It is sad that Alabama only has a little hill the size of Badger, but there sill be fun things to do there in the winter. Maybe you guys can find a hobby of crockadile hunting in the swamps:) Let me know if you have found a house or not. One thing I am really excited about is that there will be missionaries in Jacksonville and we can help them with their missionary work. I love you all! thanks for everything you do!

Love Elder Anderson

I will write all I can in the short time I have. I am not being transferred, so I will be with elder Brownlee for 6 more weeks. We are doing great things together and we are working really hard. It was really cold this last week, but not as cold as North Dakota. The members are great here and I love serving here in Gillette. I will send a long email next week. I am healthy and not sick any more. 

This week was really great. We have transfers today so this letter will be really short. This week flew by. It really doesn't seem like I have been out very long. So we just found out that the person we helped out last week is really dangerous, but we're excited ;)

I love you all !

Love,

Elder Anderson

(a few words from his companion):

Elder Anderson is the best companion in the world. He is a hard worker and I don't know what I would do without him.  Thanks for raising such and awesome kid! 

Elder Jordan Brownlee

    

 It was great to see my family on facetime this week! I have 2 stories to tell over this letter today: one of a really sketchy situation right outside our window last night and the second of a really awesome spiritual experience.

     So last night I was writing in my journal before bed @ about 1015, and I heard some guy honking his horn for like 10 minutes straight. I didn't think much of it because we kind of live in the sketchy part of Gillette, so I looked out the window to see what was going on. When I looked out I could see this car just sitting there impatiently waiting to pick up someone in the apartment. Then this guy came out of a different house and walked right up to the car and started banging on the window of the driver. He was really mad about all the honking and they started to yell and everything got really heated. They started challenging each other and I thought it would turn into a fight. then the people who the driver was honking at came out and got in the car. They were probably both on drugs or something and it was a good thing that one of them was in a car otherwise we probably would have had to call the cops for our neighbors. But yeah it was just like watching a football game, rooting and cheering for the underdog the (guy outside of the car) but hey we live in the best part of town for missionary work because everyone really needs the gospel in their lives.

      When church was over we were waiting around in the church to get our meal calendar when this lady came into the church confused and looking like she really needed some help. We met with her in the bishop's office and she said that she didn't have much but she wanted to quit drinking because she knows it is really bad for her and she just wanted some support. We told her that she came to the right place. she didn't want to go to the catholic church. Anyways she was crying and said she really needed help, so the ward really stepped up and had her over for dinner and gave her some cloths for her baby and just were awesome. I know that this church is true and that it is Jesus Christ's only true church on this earth. No other church has the priesthood. I know that when we gave her a blessing that she was touched and felt immediate comfort. I have a strong testimony that joseph smith was a true prophet and that through him the church was restored. I know that we can be forgiven of the mistakes we have made and we can be helped with the trials we are facing through the savior's atoning sacrifice. Jesus christ lives and he loves us so much and I am so grateful for that.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen 

I love you all and thanks for the amazing Christmas! Best present ever!

Love, Elder Anderson

Hello everyone!

This week was pretty good! We are on fire right now in Gillette! We have this board in our apartment with like 200 less actives and we are trying to find out if they are interested or not and we will give this list to bishop when we are done.

 Also we are training this week on inviting new investigators that we meet and inviting them on the first lesson to be baptized. It is pretty scary to ask the zone to do stuff sometimes, but it is really fun to see all the missionaries and to be here in Gillette. 

We found 5 new people this week and one of those accepted a baptism date of Feb 1. We have this investigator who is really old and can't come to church very often, but he really wants to be baptized. His name is Dennis. That would be really awesome if you could pray for him. He lives with his son who isn't very nice to him and doesn't have the patience for an old man. 

It's pretty short today, but I will see you all on Christmas, I am excited!

Love Elder Anderson