I am so grateful for the spirit's help every day of my life

 Elder Jake and his new Mandarin companion, Elder Hancey

Jake said they get along great!

Winter is here! Well it is pretty cold. It snowed yesterday. That was about as depressing as it could have been. At least that means Christmas is coming! I can't wait for that!

The work is going well. Apparently this is the busiest Mandarin area so that's kinda cool. We are meeting with some sweet people. I had real Chinese food the other night for the first time. I have no clue what it was but it tasted great. And my hand felt like a pretzel after from using chopsticks haha! Those things hurt! One of our investigators, Lulu, fed us after we helped do some yard work for her. She is super nice and her little boy is super hyper and hilarious. I can't understand a word he says but he is super funny. We are basically best of buds.

We are also teaching two twins in college, Daniel and Justin. Their English is pretty good, but the lessons are in Mandarin so they understand them better. They are super cool. They live in a member's basement and that is how they were introduced to the church. The members called the missionaries for translating haha! Pretty cool.

We also are teaching this lady Jane. She comes to our ESL classes (English as a Second Language). She became interested in the church and we are now teaching her. She is super sweet. Her husband speaks really good English. He is really cool. We are also working with Joanne and Jimmy. They are husband and wife. They are super cool. She wanted the family to be united in a religion so she invited the missionaries over. The dad is really interested and she really likes what this church teaches.

We are also teaching a man Brother Wang (pronounced Wong). He is an eternal investigator haha. He smokes and doesn't really have any desire to quit, but he likes us coming over to teach him and he has a ping pong table downstairs that he lets us play on after the lesson for a few minutes haha.

Yeah so the teaching is going really good. Although there is an obvious language barrier, I am amazed at the opportunities I still get to help out in the lessons. For example, we were teaching Lulu. She speaks pretty basic English. She was struggling with tithing. She didn't understand why we had to pay it and why God wouldn't just bless us regardless of whether we pay it or not. I was able to share your experience with tithing, Mom. About when you were struggling and went to pay your tithing and when you put the check in the mail, there was a check for you in the mail from one of dad's cases that was supposed to come a while ago. I think that's how it went. I told her that the Lord helps us provide for our families when we help provide for his church. Right then she understood completely and it was no longer a question of why we have to pay tithing. It was awesome so see how well the spirit was able to help her understand what I was saying and the importance of this principle.

It is amazing the things that the spirit is able to do. I am so grateful for the spirit's help every day of my life. It is such a blessing in our lives to be able to have that direct connection to our Heavenly Father through the spirit. I hope that we are all doing our best to remain worthy of the wonderful blessings the spirit has to offer. For without the spirit, we are lost. I know this is true.

I hope you are doing well back home. I pray for you all every night! I am grateful for your prayers for I feel them all!

Take care! Love you!!

Elder Anderson

Elder Jake and the Leavitt Family from Lethbridge

Jake said they are "sick" which in Jake language means awesome!

I know there is a lot for me to learn here and that I am here for a reason

我是安长老
Translation: I am Elder Anderson!

I can even say it! I am serving in a zebra companionship. that means my companion is a Mandarin speaking elder. We cover two stakes, the South and Foothills. That means that High River is in our area too! I'm stoked to stop by and visit sometime. 

It is crazy going from Lethbridge to Calgary. It's a lot bigger and busier here. There are nine Mandarin speaking Elders in the mission and they are all in Calgary. North/Airdry, South/Foothills, East, West, and Downtown. I make the tenth Mandarin. It is almost like being part of a separate mission. It is cool.

They get together for meetings and what not. They kind of run their own show. It's as if we are our own zone. They are sweet too. They accepted me as one of their own. I had to do an initiation first. Just eat a Thai pepper that was super hot but after that, I was Mandarin! I even get to have my own Mandarin name tag! I'm stoked for that.

There is a good amount of work going on here. The Chinese people are so cool. They are super nice and humble. I don't help a lot during lessons, but occasionally I get to share a story or testimony here and there if they speak a little English. We are teaching this lady Lulu. She is sweet. Super nice. She is really interested and is doing great. I got to help teach her a little about tithing. It was awesome. It is sweet sitting back and listening to them speak Mandarin. It's a totally different experience. I love it!

Although I really miss this Lethbridge and Roma, I really like this area and am happy to be here. I'm super glad I get to serve with the Mandarin missionaries and see the mission life from this perspective. I know there is a lot for me to learn here and that I am here for a reason. I can't wait to see what God has in store for me in this area. I can already tell it's going to be great. Other than that not much else is new. I hope all is well back home.

I love you all! 下周见 (See you next week)

爱,

长老安

( Love, Elder Anderson)

Goodbye Lethbridge

Well this is the moment I have been dreading. I love Lethbridge. I love this area but I had to leave at some point. It will be sad saying goodbye to everyone here. I love the members and the ward. I feel like this is my own ward now. I am going north. Probably Calgary. I will find out Thursday. Looks like I will be in the big city for the winter. Which also means Christmas. 

Anyway, I am grateful for the opportunity I was given to serve here. I hope I will be able to return here again and be close. I have learned so much in this area. I have spent 7 months here. There hasn't been a baptism for a while in this area. Some people are really close, but I won't be here to see them make the commitment. 

I hope I can leave like Abanadi. He didn't see any fruits of his labors but because of him thousands upon thousands were baptized. I hope that even though I wasn't able to get anyone baptized here, there will be people who will get baptized when I leave. I hope the efforts I put in here were not in vain. I hope that I have done something. I don't expect to be quite as accomplished as Abanadi though haha. 

As much as I will miss this area, I am excited to see what's to come in my new area. I'm ready for the new challenges and trials that I will inevitably face. And I am definitely ready for the good times. I have had some pretty sweet companions so far so I am due for a dork. That has me nervous haha. It will be good either way. 

The Lord kinda knows what he is doing haha. I'm sure things are exactly the way he wants them to be. And to know that I am in his hands brings me all the comfort I need. I hope you all know that the Lord looks after each and every one of you personally. He knows your situation and knows exactly what you need. All he asks us to do is ask him for help. The task ahead of you is never as great as the power behind you. And that is a promise. 

Take care until next time. 

Elder Anderson

Elder Jake is amused by a tired missionary who is sleeping during General Conference.

Missionaries work hard, so no judgement here.  : )

It is so important for us to always be in tune with the spirit so when our Heavenly Father needs our help, we will be ready to listen to what he has to say.

New news!  Pretty slick subject right? Took me about ten seconds to think of it. Well this has been a pretty sweet week. We were able to get in with a few of our investigators so that was really good. Some of our other investigators are not doing good. They aren't meeting with us anymore and getting into things that are not good. But we had a really sweet experience with one of the moms of the kids we are teaching. 

We stopped by on Sunday because we hadn't seen them in a while. They let us in and we were just catching up for a while. Right as we were about to get to the lesson part her husband calls and needs a ride. I was super bummed at first because we weren't going to be able to share the message. I had the talk by Elder Holland that you sent me called lessons from Liberty Jail about prayer and receiving revelation no matter where we are in our lives. 

Instead of giving the message I just gave her the talk, asked them to read it, then we would go over it next time. Well a week later we stop by and she doesn't have much time because she is getting ready to eat dinner, but she invites us in for a quick sec to tell us what happened. She read the talk and as she was reading it she realized it was exactly what her friend was going through. She thought the talk was written for her. Her friend is an active member of the church who was recently offended and started having doubts. She called up her friend and read her the talk. Her friend said that the talk answered every question and doubt that she had. She said all but one. Then Sister Sheppard, the one I gave the talk to, read her your testimony that you put in the back, Mom. Her friend said that that answered the last question she had. 

Sister Sheppard said it was really weird that everything worked out the way it did. You sent me the talk. I highlighted the parts I liked. I gave the talk to Sister Sheppard because we didn't have time for a lesson. Then she read the talk and realized that is was perfect for her friend. Her friend was starting to have doubts about the church because of what happened. This talked cleared everything up and helped answer every question she had. It is amazing to see how the Lord works in our lives. 

Everything had to work out perfectly in order for that to happen. Not being able to share the message turned out to be a blessing in disguise If you remove one variable from that equation, then it all falls apart. When we said the closing prayer, I felt inspired to give the talk to Sister Sheppard. I don't know why. I didn't want to give the talk away. I love that talk and have read it multiple times. I figured I would get it back but you never know. Had I ignored that prompting, I would have denied that woman an answer from God. 

It is so important for us to always be in tune with the spirit so when our Heavenly Father needs our help, we will be ready to listen to what he has to say. How great it is to be able to be an instrument in the Lords hands. Although this email is short this week, I hope you can learn something from it. I know that I have. 

Stay safe and love one another. Until next week.

Elder Anderson

Here is the link to the marvelous talk that Elder Jake referred to, Lessons from Liberty Jail:

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2009/09/lessons-from-liberty-jail?lang=eng

An email "conversation" with Elder Jake

Elder Jake (back right) and seven other fabulous Lethbridge missionaries at Dairy Queen!

Elder Jake wasn't able to send an email today because the server went down while he was typing it.  Each week he and I are able to "chat" back and forth while he is on the computer.  I make sure to be at my computer so I won't miss the opportunity to check in with him.  It's a great blessing!  Since he wasn't able to send an email this week I thought I'd post the back and forth conversation we had today.  You can see the real Jake and his fabulous sense of humor in this casual chat.

I sent Jake (an android lover) a picture of me (an iPhone lover) holding my new iPhone 6.  And this is where the teasing started!  : )

Jake

You DO look different

me

Why do you say that?  Do I look cooler?

Jake

No. Older

me

I KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

You should be giving me sympathy!  Not being mean to me!!!!!

Jake

I thought you were a grandma

me

I look a lot cooler with the 6 in my hands!!!!

Jake

Not impressed

me

Oh you should be!  It's amazing!  Huddy and I can send voice texts to each other.  It trumps the dumb Androids big time!!!

Jake

Hahaha oh i'm sure

me

You are so jelly!!!

Jake

We should be getting iPads soon enough

me

When will you be on Facebook?  And when do you think you'll get iPads?

Jake

Elder Packer said Facebook should come before the end of the year and iPads might be before the end of the year but probably the beginning of next

me

Awesome!  How will you use Facebook?

Jake

I don't know. I've heard we will have some time during the day to go on and use it to proselyte. I don't know if we get to keep our old account or if we get a new one though

me

Gotcha!  Do you miss being on the computer or having a smart phone?

Jake

Not really. We have a phone to call and text people and that's about it but I don't miss much

me

That's good.  Do you feel like you are busy all the time?  Is it kind of crazy?

Jake

We aren't too busy but we always have stuff we can do so it's pretty good

me

That's good.  Do you sleep well?  Why were you so sleepy at the conference, and at the temple?

Jake

Hahaha meetings… they are too long. The conference was from 9 to 3

me

WOW!  That's a doozy!  

me

What are you doing today?  Is it P-Day?  (P-Day is the missionaries day off)

Jake

yeah. We are probably playing basketball. Possible going to Henderson lake to play football or soccer

Jake

I can't get on to the mail server so I won't be able to write a weekly email. It closed out on me and is giving me an error. I'll have to write next week

me

That is not acceptable!!!!!!!  You must write and email.

Jake

Haha I can't sorry. I will write a good long one next week

me

They are predicting that over a million people may die from Ebola.  How sad!

Jake

Man that is crazy. Is it in the states?

me

No, just in Africa right now.  I feel terrible for them.  Have you heard from Cody lately? (Cody is Jake's cousin who is serving a mission in Ghana.  He was called to serve in Sierra Leone but was moved to Ghana when the Ebola outbreak got so bad.)

Jake

yeah he wrote me this week. He said he went from a 3rd world country to a 2.5 hahaha

me

That's pretty funny!  Ghana seems to be a lot more civilized than Sierra Leone.  I think it's been kind of a hard adjustment for him.  How is your son doing?  (The word "son" is used by missionaries to describe a new missionary that they are training.  Jake loves his "son" Elder Faimalo, and says every week how much fun they have together.)

Jake

Great. He is so funny

me

The video you made is awesome!  Make more!

Jake

Haha ok I will try. There is one of us singing a hymn acapella that is pretty cool. I'll see if Roma can sent it to you

me

I would love that!  Do it!  She is seriously the best!!!

Jake

yeah she is awesome

me

I saw a pic of you on Facebook at Dairy Queen last night.  LUCKY!

Jake

Hahaha no way! A lady took that and put it on this blog for missionary moms hoping that some of our moms would see it. That is awesome!

me

I know!  I love it when I see pics of you on there.  What three words would you use to describe your mission?

Jake

Hard Enlightening and a blast

me

What's hard?  I know it's hard but what makes it hard?

Jake

There is a lot of responsibility and obligation involved. along with the fact that it is tiring and you have rules that seem ridiculous and are hard to follow.

me

HEY!!!!  Dad said he got an email from you.  You said the server is down.  I need an email!!!

What makes it enlightening?

Jake

Hahahaha I told you it closed down on me and I can't get back into it

me

Sure it did!  : )

me

So what makes it enlightening?

Jake

You just learn so many things about the gospel and the church and how it is run.  And a lot about people in the world. It's funny because we are in the world but not of the world, but we learn so much about being of the world through other people we meet

me

What makes it fun?

Jake

And it's fun because of the people you meet and the good times you have

Are those good enough primary answers?

me

That is awesome!!!!  It's such a blessing that you decided to serve for these 2 years!

Jake

It's a long 2 years that passes in a flash

me

It's going by really fast for me!  And I'm so grateful!

Jake

Me too. Well I have to get going early today. We are on a members computer because the library was full. I'll talk to you next week

me

OK!  Love you so much!  Just keep swimming!

Jake

Love you too!!!

It doesn't matter what your weaknesses are. God can make them your strengths if you let him into your life and allow him to make some changes.

Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail by Liz Lemon Swindle

Well I guess that works as a subject. Well this week has been pretty sweet. We have had so much fun. I told Shelby that it should be a sin to laugh that hard. I was in tears last night. All because of the dumbest things. Regardless, laughter is the best medicine. Too bad I wasn't sick. Saturday we built a concession stand in Stirling for the people there. That was super fun. Almost the whole zone was there. It was a gong show. 

Yesterday we were able to get in with the Laytons and Sheppards. They are investigators of ours that we haven't seen in a while. It was good to meet with them. They have been busy. The Laytons had a little baby boy two months ago and he has hair thicker and longer than Huddy's right now haha. It is insane! We shared the message from the talk by Elder Holland called Lessons from Liberty Jail. We talked about how it doesn't matter where we are or what kind of situation we are in, we can always communicate to Heavenly Father. He is always listening and he will always answer our prayers. It is a simple yet powerful message that is perfect for all of us to hear. We all need to know that we can always seek for guidance, council, strength, comfort, love, and so much more when we pray to God. What a great blessing that is in our lives. 

I have learned a lot about responsibility this week. We are accountable for a lot on a mission. There are duties that we have that are important. We will be called to give blessings, service, lessons, and all kinds of help at a moments notice. It is important that we quickly respond to these callings. It is our calling that we serve God's children to the best of our ability. That thought is kind of daunting haha. We are responsible for the people here. It makes it hard when you don't see a lot of progress. You feel like you are letting the area down as well as God. It is a heavy burden to carry. I am constantly reminding myself that the progress is not just based on us. It is also based on the pride and stubbornness of the people. And that makes it hard to love them sometimes haha. However, I have seen God not only change others lives, but mine as well. 

I have seen so many ways God has looked after me out here. Even for things like my appetite. I will eat virtually anything now. So simple but it makes a difference. I have learned to love everyone. I have grown a love for the people here. I care about them. I want to see them progress. Back home, I didn't like people much. I hardly talked to my relatives!  (This is Jake's mom, and I'm giggling reading about him not talking to people.  That's not far from the truth.  Jake was a bit reserved at times and to see him growing in this way is marvelous!  A huge tender mercy!!)  And out here I am knocking on doors and talking to people about the one thing they don't want to talk about! Religion! It doesn't matter what your weaknesses are. God can make them your strengths if you let him into your life and allow him to make some changes. Even if the only way to make those changes is through trials. This email probably doesn't make any sense but I was led by the spirit not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Hopefully I said something that will help you. Take care until next time my friends. 

Elder Anderson

You can listen to or read Elder Hollands amazing talk, Lessons from Liberty Jail, here:

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/ces-devotionals/2008/01?lang=eng

You never know how God will show you his love next.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  We woke up to white flecks of satanic substance falling from the sky. They call is snow. I don't know what to say. 

Well a little update on the mission business. We should be getting iPads at the beginning on next year. That's the rumor anyway. However, we should be getting Facebook by the end of the month! So that could be cool. We'll see what happens. Sorry about last week. Totally forgot to send an email. Haha haven't done that yet. 

Well this past couple weeks have been ok. We got to meet with Bruce a couple of times. He is sweet. He talks our ear off haha. And he thinks he notices things about us but he really doesn't. He thinks I sit in the same chair every time we go to his house but I haven't haha. He is sweet. He says that the farm is his religion. We are trying to get him to say that this is his religion haha. He is super funny and always jokes around with us. The last time we met with him I feel like we left him thinking really hard about what we talked about. When we said the prayer he folded him arms and bowed his head. He didn't know why, he just did it. Then he saw us do it and asked why we did it. We said that it is something we do out of reverence and respect to Heavenly Father. He laughed and said, "I must have been a Mormon in the previous life." Elder Faimalo followed that up beautifully and said that maybe you should be a Mormon in this life too. Haha what a response! I feel that he was really thinking when we left though. It was a good visit. 

We also met with a less active Marj. She is awesome. We got down to her concern last week. She broke down in tears and told us that she doesn't feel like she belongs at church because she doesn't have the proper clothes and because she doesn't have family that goes with her. She sees all the members there with their family and thinks that she shouldn't be there. We tried to tell her that the ward is her family and she just diverted back to the clothes issue. Well that one is fixable. We are going to see if maybe her Visiting Teachers can get her an outfit or something. All she needs is a little push. If she feels like she is loved, then she will feel like she belongs. 

It is all about love. Love can change lives. Some people simply don't recognize love when they see it. God pours his love out to all of His children. If we are closed off however, we won't feel His love. If we don't feel like God loves us, then it is our fault. Because He does love us. If you don't feel His love, then you need to stop closing off to Him. Let Him in your life. Let him work miracles. Jona couldn't run from God and neither can you. Don't be scared of God, be scared of missing His presence. Without Him, we are nothing. Alma 26:12. 

I hope you all know that God loves you. As do I. Take care and listen close. You never know how God will show you his love next. 

Elder Anderson

Snow in September...YIKES!!

Canada sure is beautiful!!