Week 48

Dear Everyone,

This week I got to teach the restoration to 300 people. I'll explain that a little later in my email but this week was really great. I felt a lot of calming reassurance from the Spirit when I taught. There were a lot of contacts that we had with people where I felt like I really connected with them. When I was on exchanges in another area, my companion and I met a really nice lady. We actually walked onto her porch looking for someone else and she slid open a sliding door and asked us what we wanted. We asked if she knew if the person lived there and she said no and that she had just moved in. We asked her some questions and she said she had talked with missionaries before and she wasn't trying to meet with Elders anytime soon. But we kept talking to her and just getting to know her. We offered to help if they needed any with the move and she really appreciated that. We talked about what her husband does for work and what she does and it was cool that I've done some similar work in the past. We also talked about what her beliefs were and what she felt was true. She opened up and shared things that were on her mind and some questions that she had. As she was talking, I was listening, and I couldn't help but feel like I needed to share something specific with her. And then I realized how different she was acting compared to when we first got there. She actually said "you aren't like the other people I've talked to". She could feel that we cared. I've thought that it's kind of strange how much I can care about random strangers I meet each day when I don't even know them. But I think that if we really want to bless someone's life, the Spirit will help us know how to do it. It will help us understand what that person needs and it will help us love that person. Heavenly Father knows each of us. He knows we make mistakes. He knows that sometimes we wander and lose our way. But all He wants is us to be happy. He wants us to return and live with Him.

This weekend we had stake conference here in the Bakersfield stake. The majority of it was about ministering. What I took away from stake conference is that we need to love God and we need to love others. It reminds me of a quote, I think Shakespeare wrote but I don't know for sure, that goes something like "they do not love, that do not show their love". If we love God, we'll serve others, and when we serve others we feel God's love working through us. It is an amazing feeling. It reminds me of when Nephi wrote of his experience of seeing the vision of the tree of life and wrote "the love of God...sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things...Yea, and the most joyous to the soul." It really is. That is what ministering is all about, it's about loving people and helping them feel God's love for them. On Saturday there was a session of conference for the leaders of each ward. They spoke about ministering and one of the things they talked about was an effort to reach out to members who had once been very involved. Members who might have served missions or been married in the temple but who have since forgotten that joy and happiness they felt when they were involved. They invited the leaders to prayerfully consider who they could go visit and also who they could send to visit them. But they also invited them to take the full time missionaries to go with them to visit these members. And to demonstrate why, they invited two missionaries to the meeting, and I was lucky enough to be one of them. They asked the missionaries serving as Zone Leaders here in Bakersfield to come but one of them was going to be going to the temple with a recent convert and a former companion and so they asked me to fill in. What they wanted us to do was to role play what one of the visits would look like. So with our Mission President and his wife acting as the couple being visited, the Stake President and us missionaries "visited" them. Our Stake President talked with them and told them why we were here and then invited us to share a message. The message they asked us to share and the message they want the missionaries to share when they go and visit these good members is the message of the Restoration. They asked us to prepare to share the message of the Restoration in about four minutes. So we did, and we bore testimony. The Spirit really filled the room. When we were done with the demonstration, the Stake President asked the group of about 300 people what their thoughts were. The two answers that many people gave was that they felt the Spirit and they couldn't help but think back to their missions and the people they taught that same message to. It was an awesome experience. The experiences I've had this week have all helped me feel that Heavenly Father loves us. I know He does. I know he cares and I know He knows each and every one of us. I also know that He uses us to show His love through us to others. This week I invite you to reach out and help someone feel that love. Serve others, and feel the joy that comes into your own life.

Thank you to everyone who has written me and who has sent packages! I cant thank you enough. It means a lot!

Love,

Elder Anderson