I guess my message for you is to just keep busy.

Man it is cold! We have been helping lots of people out. We are mainly doing a lot of moving. We help people move couches and beds. Sometimes it's from one place to another, sometimes it's from the main floor to the basement. It all depends. 

We are still working with Habitat for Humanity. They are the group that is helping people rebuild their houses. We are going to Calgary to help them. It's pretty cool, we got permission from President to leave our area or even zone to go help someone. We can't use our trucks to move things out of a city. We can move within that city, just not out of it. 

We have even done shopping for a guy. He needed a deep freeze from Costco so we went and picked it up and brought it to him. He gave us the money and everything. We have gotten a washer, dryer, and dishwasher for a lady at Sears and delivered it to her place. She has asked us to do a lot for her. She just texted me while typing this email. But she did say she wants to make us dinner one day so that's pretty cool. Hopefully we will be able to share a message with her. 

We got a random text one day that was from someone asking us to go by a street and chip away the ice. That was cold. And the ice is basically concrete. It was so hard. After a while we just put gravel on it because we didn't have the tool to take care of it. We were able to get a lot of it removed though so that was good. We are probably going to shovel snow tonight. That should be miserable. I always thought the cold was better than the heat. I'm doubting myself. 

We had dinner the other day and right after went over to a Less Active family's house. We played Catan and shared a message. They are awesome. They cooked hot dogs over a fire for dinner and offered us one. We said yes and got to eat some more food. That was fun. We shared a message about the importance of family scripture study and prayer. They said they would work on doing that daily as a family. After the message, their son who is about 8 said the closing prayer. He thanked the Lord for letting us come over and cook weenies. Needless to say, Zander (their son) is awesome. Earlier in the week when we visited them for the first time, I said the closing prayer. Halfway through it Zander said Amen. I took the hint and ended it right there. The prayer was only 30 seconds long maybe, but apparently that was long enough for him. They are cool. 

We got a referral to teach someone so we will try to contact them this week. We haven't been able to meet with Ty at all. The work has been slow in that regards but we are always looking for service so that is probably why. But we're still having fun and keeping busy. 

I guess my message for you is to just keep busy. It's hard to let Satan into our lives when we are too busy to do so. I read a scripture in Alma this week that talked about how the Nephites could be distinguished from the Lamanites because of their zeal towards God. Are we doing things that set us apart from the world? If not, what can we do to change that. Do people look at us and recognize that we are different? Are we leading by example. Would people be shocked to know that we are LDS or even religious at all? Or would they be able to say, "Yeah I can see that. That makes sense." 

I would hope that your standards are higher than the worlds standards. I would hope that you are keeping yourself busy in the things the Lord would be pleased with. It's not always easy. The harder we push to be righteous, the harder Satan will try to lead us astray. But the more we are righteous, the more we will be able to see our purpose in life and see our Heavenly Father's will. When we can have that perspective, saying no to Satan will be easier. We will have the desire to do good continually. We will be able to know that our Heavenly Father is extremely pleased with our work. Do good to be good. Take care and be safe. 

With love,

Elder Anderson

Missionary work is about being an instrument in the hands of the Lord.

 Hi everyone! How have you been? 

We have been really busy this past week. The service has picked up. We have been helping a lot of people move and clean their houses. It is crazy to see how people are still not even fully recovered from the flood. Some people are still trying to put insulation in their basements because they haven't been able to do that yet. 

We are working for a group called Habitat for Humanity. We volunteer there once a week. We go to a job site (someone's house) and work with a guy named Bill. He is awesome. He is from England and has a super strong accent. We have done laminate flooring, framing walls in basements and insulating walls in basements so far. He will teach us how to do it and then let us go off on our own and just supervise and help when we need it. It is so fun. 

Our area covers High River, a little village called Caylie (that is where me and Elder Stewart live, about 15 minutes south of town) and a small town called Nanton (another 10 minutes south of Caylie). We have been going out to Nanton lately and putting up our fliers offering free service. We have already done a few jobs out there. Nanton has more antique shops than I have ever seen in my life. The town is so small you could walk through it in two minutes but it manages to have an insane amount of antique shops. There is even a restaurant that has antiques on the wall that you can buy. At a restaurant! They have a problem. 

They also have a candy store there. They have an insane amount of candy. I found out that they call M&M's smarties here. There are always boxes of smarties at the check out lines in stores and I wondered why Canadians like them so much. I found out they are M&M's. Weird. 

Well not much new has been going on. The weather has been a few degrees positive lately so that has been awesome. When it's like this all we need is jeans and a sweater. I remember mornings like that at work (Jake is talking about when he worked at the local golf course back home and would go in at 4:00 am) thinking it was so cold I would freeze to death. Now it feels like beach weather. 

In ward council they have been talking about doing emergency preparedness classes and doing anxiety classes to help people not freak out this spring when the snow melts. It's funny back home spring was awesome because it meant winter was over and it was almost summer time. Here though, spring means flood time. The ward council is worried that people are going to stress out when the weather really starts to warm up. They even talk about how the youth will handle it. 

The flood really messed a lot of people up. It really was a devastating blow to the people here. Like I said, many people still haven't recovered. I am glad I am able to offer my help to these people. They have been through a lot. It is so rewarding doing what I am doing. Knowing that we are making a difference, no matter how small, is more than I could ever ask for. Maybe I'm not teaching people about Christ and maybe I'm not converting anyone. I'm still doing the Lord's work and that is all that matters. Our efforts are not in vain. I know that good things are to come from what we are doing. 

Missionary work is not always about preaching the word of God. Missionary work is about being an instrument in the hands of the Lord. It is about going out and doing what the Lord asks of us. Sometimes he asks us to do big things and sometimes he asks us to do little things. He will never ask us to do something too big that we can't handle it, and he will never ask us to do something that is pointless. Everything he asks of us has a reason. Whether it be for our benefit or for the benefit of others. His will be done. I know this to be true and testify to you that if you keep the commandments, even the commandments given to you personally from the Lord, you will be blessed more that you deserve. 

The church is true. There is no way around it. Don't waste this precious gift your Father has given you. This life is for us to grow, and we grow by following Christ and keeping the Commandments given to us. Don't you forget it. 

With love

Elder Anderson

Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.

Hello!

Man this has been a little bit longer week. Sorry I forgot to tell you that it is transfers tomorrow so our P-day is today not yesterday. I meant to mention that last week but forgot. But I'm still alive. Haven't frozen yet. Came pretty close a few times though. Not much has changed really. Except I now am a legit cowboy. I found some cowboy boots at a salvage center here for 5 bucks and bought a cowboy hat to go along with it. I also have a belt buckle that is pretty sweet. It has the American flag on it. I miss America. What a country. 

The service here has slowed down a little bit. We are still keeping busy but it's not as crazy. Our investigator Ty never meets with us anymore. We text him and he says he will meet with us or go to church but he is always able to find excuses. We will keep trying anyway. 

OH! We found a Foosball table in Brother Baker's basement. We have been playing that a little. It's so much fun. We will play a few games before bed or something like that. Stewart owes me a Slurpee and I owe him a soda haha. Brother Baker also has a bowflex in his basement so we have been using that to work out. I hate the bowflex... So much pain. 

Well that's about it. Not much has happened as I said. If there is one thing I want you all to know it is Joshua 1:9. That was our scripture for the year a couple years ago I think in young mens. Be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. This is absolutely true. You have God on your side, how can you ever lose? You can't unless you give up. Don't give up. God will never give up on you, don't give up on Him. Just keep swimming :). (This is Pam.  I sent Jake an inspiring talk entitled "Enduring Well" by Elder J. Christopher Lansing that you can read here if you'd like.  In the article he talks about the movie Finding Nemo and how when things get tough, Dori says over and over, "Just keep swimming."  Now I sign all my emails and letters to Jake with those words, just keep swimming.  That's why Jake uses that quote here.)

I love you all and hope you are all doing well. Try not to miss me too much even though I know that's super hard. Cause I'm awesome and all. Not to mention my humility. Take care until next time.

Elder Anderson

The only thing holding you back is you.

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Hi all!

How have you all been? It's been great here. We are keeping real busy with all the service. We helped frame a basement last Tuesday. That was awesome. Lots of people keep telling us how much they appreciate what we are doing. In fact, the other day at McDonalds, we were eating and a guy stopped me while I was walking to my seat and gave me a twenty dollar gift card. He said this is for us because of all we are doing and he is really grateful. It is amazing to see the change we are able to bring the people here in High River. Oh, by the way, turns out the town is called that because of how many floods that happen there. How stupid is that? Who would ever want to live there knowing that? I have also heard that over 2000 people are still not in their homes yet. It's been over seven months! And apparently this was one of the worst natural disasters to ever happen to Canada. It is so crazy. 

It's been colder here. We went out visiting less actives yesterday. That was cool doing something different. One man was super nice and scheduled a time for us to come back and teach him. Another lady was not so nice. 

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he just said she couldn't meet with us today and to call again before coming by. We also talk

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 to another lady who was nice. We will be going back to teach her too. 

Well, I had quite the sweet experience this week. We were at a member's house eating dinner. I had the message and I had no clue what I was going to share. During dinner, I said a prayer and told God I will just listen to the family during dinner and not worry about the lesson if he would put the words in my mouth at the very hour I needed them. I remember reading that in the scriptures in the MTC so i gave it a shot. Well, just a few minutes after the prayer, the man of the house said how there was this guy at work he had been wanting to talk about the gospel to. I started to get excited thinking of how I could tie that into the lesson. I still couldn't think of a scripture though. Lo and behold, he follows that up with, I guess I'm just trying to build up the courage..." The first thing that popped into my head was not too small of a prompting. It was more of a shout. "NEPHI WAS COURAGEOUS AND THIS WAS HIS REPLY. 'I WILL GO I WILL DO THE THINGS THE LORD COMMANDS!'" Immediately I thought of 1 Nephi 3:7. 

I was able to use that scripture with the family and I talked about how we don't always know what the Lord wants us to say or do, but as long as we have faith and follow his commandments, he will provide a way for 

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to accomplish the thing that he commands us. The man was so thankful and he said that he totally forgot about that scripture and that was exactly what he needed to hear. It is amazing what the Lord can do for us. I now know that if we just have faith that he will provide a way, then we have nothing to worry about. He will never leave us hanging high and dry all by ourselves. 

I thanked the Lord abundantly that night for what He did for me. I would encourage all of you to never be afraid of sharing the gospel with people. When Nephi was commanded to go and get the plates, he had no idea what to do. He didn't know how he was going to get them. He didn't even get them the first try. It took a few times before he was able to get the plates. The last time he went into the city, the Lord provided a way. It was possible because of both Nephi and his courage, and because of the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all they might. He will never let you down. I know that for a fact. Don't let fear control you. Your Father in Heaven will bless you ten times more than you deserve if you trust in Him and have faith. I hope you all will be able to follow your Father's commandments. I know you can. The only thing holding you back is you. Don't get in the way of your salvation or the salvation of others. 

I love you all and hope all is well back home. Take care!

Elder Anderson

Here's a pic of Jake and his companion, Elder Stewart.  Silly missionaries!!

This is Jake's normal missionary attire.  Not the white shirt and tie that most missionaries wear, but this is what you wear when rebuilding a flooded town.

Regarding this picture, Jake said to his family who has always lived in sunny So. California,
"This is what trees look like after snow."

It sure is flat in High River!!

Jake is so proud of these $15 boots he bought at Walmart.

He picked up this beanie at Walmart, too.
It makes me happy happy happy to know his head is warm!