I don't want to say goodbye to my mission.

 

I cannot fully describe the torn emotion I am feeling as I type this email. This is harder than I ever thought it would be. I don't want to say goodbye to my mission. Transfers are hard, but this is impossible. I just want to tell you one thing that happened before I say goodbye til Friday. 

So this area has honestly been my hardest area. And Elder Kelly agrees with that for himself as well. I have never worked so hard for the work than in this area. We have fasted many days trying to get the work going. We have gotten a family in each ward throughout the whole stake fasting every day for 40 days. Tons of things have happened since I've been in this area. And just about all of them have petered out to amount to nothing really. 

I was prepared to leave this area holding on to the one lady we were able to help come back to church. And don't get me wrong, that was amazing and I will never forget that experience or lose touch with her. But after all the work we have done, I would have considered this a dead area until Sunday. We have less investigators than I have fingers on one hand. And none of them have shown any desire to progress. Until yesterday. 

We had one of our investigators come to church with his friend. He has been taught for over two years and has come to church many many times. Since I have been in the area nothing has happened with him. Well at the start of third hour at church yesterday, he and his friend, Corey, who's a member, asked to speak with us. We went into an empty classroom and sat down. Our investigator looked at us and said, "Corey is going to baptize me on January 1st." 

I have never been more shocked on my mission than at that moment. This came out of the blue! Completely blindsided me! Never in a million years did I think something this miraculous would happen. And the greatest thing of all was what the spirit told me at that moment. This was God's way of saying "Thank you." After four months of frustration, disappointment, and discouragement, God produced the miracle. 

We have fought and dug and prayed and fasted for something to happen. Never have I faced such opposition than I have in this area. And just before I go home, God shows me that what I have done was not in vain. The sweat and tears that went into this area were not wasted. God never left us. And he never stopped working alongside us. He has been here all along working behind the scenes. 

I cannot tell you what joy I have felt being able to work with the greatest being to ever live. I cannot tell you the pure happiness I have felt doing His work. And I cannot even begin to describe to you how grateful I am to have been called to this work. For it truly is the work of God. And there is no greater work to be done on this earth. You will never feel a more powerful love than that of God's. And you will still never know how much He truly loves you. I couldn't have asked for a greater ending. This truly will be happily ever after. Because I know that this happiness is unending. No one loves you more than God. And God will never love you less. 

I will be home in five days. And I'm not totally sure how I feel about that. I never thought this day would come. But it has. And I never thought it would be so hard to leave. But it is. I love you all and can't wait to see you again. Well I could wait a little longer, but I won't. I'm not allowed haha. 

Until we meet again.

Elder Anderson

I'm going to miss this place so much.

It's been insanely warm here which is the greatest news I have for you really. It's been around 7-10 degrees Celsius. There is still green grass here. It's insane! I'm loving it! It's the middle of December and we are wearing sweaters #joy. 

It's been a pretty quiet week though. Not too much has happened. We had two people we are working with come to church which is sweet. One lady who has been reactivated is doing amazing. She is the greatest person alive. We are so pumped for her. She is getting ready to go to the temple as soon as she can. I will be coming back up for that. 100%. 

Time is getting short though. I'm going to be home too soon. I'm going to miss this place so much. It's really hard to think about. I try not to dwell on it too much. But people love reminding me how much time I have left. haha I think they're trying to get rid of me. Probs. 

Anyway I don't really have anything to report on this week. 

I love you all and will see you soon!

Elder Anderson

We can choose to be happy.

It's been absolutely freezing here!!!! It's around -10 in the mornings and evenings and warming up to around 1 or 2 degrees during the day! Holy cow this country is cold!!!! I'm not sure I will miss that. Actually I'm pretty sure I won't, however it makes for fun stories. Like having to walk uphill both ways in a blizzard to church. You know, the usual stuff. 

Speaking of usual stuff! Here's a cool little message I've prepared over the past couple seconds. #bearwithme! One thing I learned this week is that there are things in this life that we cannot control. Other people are an example of this. We cannot control people or what they do. However we can control our reaction. Our feelings of love and peace and happiness and joy are not just nouns. But they are verbs as well. They are actions that we can choose to do or feel. We can choose to love someone. We can choose to be happy. We can choose to be peaceful. These things are principles. They are unchanging. We have the opportunity to choose them every time and never worry about something changing. Some things in this life change without our control. When we center our lives around those things, we will completely crumble and fall, because they might change. However if we make the unchanging principles the center of our lives, then we will never have to worry about something affecting us in the negative. because we chose to be happy. We chose to have fun. We chose to love. And nothing or no one has the power to change our feelings but ourselves. Some unchanging things that we have are the scriptures, the gospel, Jesus Christ. If we center our lives around things like these, then we will never be let down. As we think proactively rather than reactively, we will find more happiness and joy.

Hope this made sense and helped! Love you all! Take care of each other and love one another!

Elder Anderson