Week 42

Dear Everyone, this week was great! We met some really cool people and were able to teach some good lessons. I love building up the areas where I serve. It's amazing to add names to the list of people that we know and are teaching. We were able to go on a few exchanges this week. I was able to be companions for a day with another missionary who was trained by the missionary who trained me. That was really cool because we have a lot of similar ideas about missionary work and it was neat to just go out and work together. The other exchange we went on I went with Elder Rasmussen! He is companions with our district leader and it was cool to see him and spend more time with him. He's the missionary who we drove up to Bakersfield to the hospital from Palmdale. I hope sometime in my mission I'll get to be his companion but he's a Spanish missionary haha so the chances of that aren't super high. He is a super diligent missionary and he speaks Spanish so well. A member asked him how long he has been out and he told him "9 months" and the member was surprised because he speaks it like a missionary who has been out for about 20 months. This week we were also able to go to a conference in Tehachapi. We learned a lot and talked about who we are as missionaries and what we do as missionaries. President and Sister Layton gave us a lot of good training. One funny thing from the meeting is that President Layton teased me about being old hahaha. First of all, a lot of missionaries tease me about being older and it's super funny haha it's a running joke between us. And so in the meeting my companion and I were asked to talk and there was a podium and a table and so I put my stuff on the podium and not the table so I could see my notes better. President Layton had stuff on the podium and he went to move the stuff that he had on there and I said "don't worry about it I just like having my stuff closer to my eyes" and he said "you aren't getting old are you?" hahahaha it was so funny. A bunch of the missionaries who know me laughed super hard haha it was hilarious. President Layton is a funny guy.

But anyway, I'm getting to know my area a little better now. I feel more comfortable here and I hope I get to stay for a little while. I am meeting a lot of new missionaries I've never met before. It's cool to be on the other side of the mission and see how everything is over here. A highlight of my week was actually yesterday. I got a message from my last companion and he told me that one of the ladies we were teaching came to church and even bore her testimony in sacrament meeting! I know that we are led to who we need to meet! I'm so glad that I was able to be guided to find her when I was in Palmdale!

Something this week that has stuck out to me a lot is one of the messages we received from the Prophet at General Conference. "In the coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting and constant influence of the Holy Ghost." The need to learn how to receive and recognize the voice of the Holy Ghost in our lives was a theme of this past General Conference. It's something I know I am learning as a missionary, and that if we want to learn, we can. Just like other things in life, it comes with practice. So I invite everyone to develop their spiritual awareness and learn how the Lord speaks to you through the Spirit. It will bless your life!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Anderson

Last week we played some baseball on Monday haha I only bled a little