Cholos, Cano and Quesadillas

So this week we had the chance to talk to a lot of cholos (Gangsters) because my companion is scared to talk to them. So I started talking more to them haha. But now they are starting to leave us alone. Before they would try to get us to talk to them and yell at us and stuff, but now when we walk past they just yell BROTHERS! So it's better!!!

My new companion his name is Elder Cano and he is way cool! We likes to work hard and his teaching is really good!! He helps me when I need it and he speaks almost fluent english so if I don't know a word he helps me! It's been a really good week with him but he has a default and now I have also... he likes to eat the food in the street... and I'll tell you what, the food in the street is better then fast food and like 4 thousand times more addicting... I've stalled out with losing wieght so I decided I need to change something... We have a taco station right outside our house and their quesadillas are to die for... I just would eat them all day if it was possible but I guess I am going to start eating healthier. So this morning I bought a bunch of fruit and veggies, like 6 kilos of mangos for 30 pesos which is 2 dollars. So that was sweet and I will continue to lose weight! Woo but enough of that.

This week we were going to have a baptism but she changed her mind because our other companion left without saying bye... So I think she has a little bit of a trust issue. But we got her to come to church this week and she has totally change her mind about church, I think and we also introduced her to the bishop and we had a talk with him and honesly the spirit was so strong, and she said that a couple of her questions were answered so that is so sweet for us! She really is so awesome, the last time we went we knocked on her door and she had strawberry smothies for us!! It was awesome!! But I really do think the Lord had prepared her before and he is working hard with her but I also think the Devil is working hard on her also so we are fighting another War with the devil...  but that's the life of the missionary!! 

This last week we actually changed a lot of things and now we are working harded then ever, because I am not training anymore is time for me to get to work and do what I'm here to do. Not that I wasn't before but I was just following the lead of my companions and now my companion follows me because he doesn't know the area so we are getting to work and doing what we need to, to be the missionarys the Lord needs us to be and we have a bunch of new investigators and we are starting to tear up this area... the missionarys in this ward we decided that we are going to be the missnionarys who change this ward so we have tons of work to do we have 1027 members in our ward and 84 is our average attendence so we are working really hard. 

Yesterday we we had a lesson with a less active and he at first told us he wasn't going to go to church and then we watched a video and we shared our testimonys and the spirit was so strong that we all almost started crying and after he said yes I will be at church! So it's way exciting!! 

I love you all! I dont know if I told you last week but I recieved a bunch of letters from christmas so thank you to everyone who wrote me!! 

.

With a big amount of love

Elder Andy

Conference!

This week was so sweet! I'm just going to get conference out of the way! This conference I have never been so attentive! If that's a word. The way that this conference impacted me made me want to be a better missionary and make everything be as perfect as I can!! But one of my biggest questions was answered this week and I'm going to share what it was.

I've obviously never been perfect and I have sins and problems just like everybody. I have had times in my life when I had to ask myself if God is real just like everybody. I have had many times where I asked why should I follow the commandments? And I have had many times where I didn't and it cost me. But still until this conference I had my biggest question answered.

Why don't I just live my life and not worry about commandments and do what ever I want and party       "Eat Drink and be Marry" it just seems so much easier for those people who party and have fun but during this conference and from now I on I know why I follow the commandments. It's not because I will look like a better person or because I can be an example to others those are just perks... but it's because I love Him. I LOVE Our Heavenly Father and I love Jesus Christ... nobody understands what Jesus Christ did for us and we will not have to go through that in this life, but he did it for us out of love. We have an opportunity to love him and show through the life we live how much we love Him. There is no greater gift we have received and we will never be able to comprehend what he did for us.

For me there is a new reason to be out here on a mission and help other people and that is because of love. I love every single one of you and I miss every single one of you so much but the Lord asked me to be here and so I am out here and I am out here out of love. 

So that was sweet, but also this week we have started a new thing called GRACIASAQUEELVIVE which means thank you to that he lives but I think it is because he lives in English, it's on the front page on youtube. But this helped me gain a testimony and if you want a family home evening idea throught that on and the first time read what it says and talk about what you have thanks to him living and then look at the pictures only and tell me its not exactly what you said... this was a testimony builder for me, I hope it will do the same for you...

We had an activity for this initiative we have with our ward and then we played volley ball after and I'll tell you what if you ever want to see a bishop mad make sure the team opposed to him wins haha but that was really fun.

Yesterday we had a guy stop us on the street and it was so funny. He almost fell 5 times and we had to catch him and oh man he was right in front of me and I heard his vomit coming and................ I jumped out of the way but wow it was a lot and then he fell over thankfully the other way then his throw up but then his cholo buddies came over to him and helped him and we left but if I didn't step out of the way I would have had a face full of alcohol throw up.  So I count that as a blessing this week  

Everything was great this week! I love you all! Me and my companions moto is to be "STRONGER THEN YESTERDAY". I don't know who sings this song but my companion always sings it so now it's our moto haha. So I invite everyone to be stronger or better then they were yesterday!!

Adios muchachos!!

Elder Andy

Transfers!

 So this week was week of transfers!! My companion got made a zone leader and sent to Morelia! It's about 2 hours from here! He was actually pretty bumbed and all day Sunday he was like ahhh I don't wantttttt haha. It was so funny! But we had a good 6 weeks together!! Our other companion that was in our district actually finished his mission today! So that was exciting for him! The other missionary got transfered to gGadalajara, So right now I am the only one in the area that knows where and when we eat and the areas. So I feel pretty powerful. I feel like hulk or something like that. But anyways, my new companion is Elder Cano! He is from a city close to Cancun and he's way cool! He trained one of my friends in the MTC so that was kinda cool!! I'm very excited!!

This week we had one of our investigators who told us, she would not get baptized, but she wanted us to keep coming, commit to be baptized this week! So that's pretty exciting! We actually didn't invite her, she told us that after going to conferance she recieved her answer and is ready to be baptized, it was pretty awesome!! We are very excited for her and my companion said he thinks she has a crush on me and I said, well the fact that she is 55 and married makes that very scary haha but she very sweet and she sells tortas and they are so good and she always gives us some when we go! I am very excited for her. She has investigated many chruches and she knew that she found something with us and that is why she continued and now we are in a great place with her and her conversion! It's so cool!

So we went to see Antonio this week and oh  my gosh... if I could tell you a change!! I have said before that the Gospel changes lives but when we went to see Antonio I literally saw a different person. When we came he was so excited and went and changed into pants and then got his familly to come to the lesson and his daughter actually decided to be baptized too! But one thing we did with him when he was scared to pray somone would pray first and then he would do one and at the end of our lesson we asked her to pray and she said she was scared and then he said how about I do one and then you do one... my heart almost melted...  he listened to us! And now he wants to recieve the Preisthood to be able to baptize his daughter next week! Gosh I think that was the best birthday present I could have recieved!! He will go far in life with the Gospel in his life!

So on my birthday, I actually forgot it was my birthday, but at the end of the day I remebered so we bought pizza! It was so good!! And today I bought candy because hey it was my birthday eh? So ya I'm eating skittles for the first time in months! And I don't even feel bad about it! Also I gained 2 pounds so I decieded that after this candy I'm going to quit candy for this transfer and go running haha So thats exciting!!

I think I had a funny story but I don't remeber.... I thought about saying a black joke but it doesn't seem apropriate... 

Oh  but my spanish with somethings when people talk its like they are speaking English I can understand so good! Which is goood because my companion doesn't speak good English!!

Love you all and thanks for the Birthday wishes!!!

Elder Andy

Great Week!

Hey everybody!!

So this week was great!  Other then I had to do splits again, I found out what the word was for divisionales  in English but I forgot when I got here,  but it's when we go with someone like the  zone leader or something like that  but it was really good, I was in an area called Los Reyes which is really small and there is not a lot of mormons but it was actually really cool and one guy gave me a bunch of black berries and they were right off the vine! They were really good and really really big!! We visited some people and everything went good, it is about an hour from our area so the first day was all bus and then the next we worked and then studied and went back. We taught the same lady that I talked about last week and when we talked to her she told us that the church is true and that this is the route she wants for her kids but it's hard for her to give up the Virgin of Guadalupe which doesn't make sense to me but it's all good so there it was good!!

So on Friday we went out and worked really hard and it was really good! We met a new investigator  who said that in the bible it says we don't need a church and we asked him to show us where that was because we had never seen but he didn't know haha if someone knows let us know ahha At the beginning we said a prayer and during the prayer he kept saying YES LORD, PRAISE JESUS and I will tell you I think it's cool he wants to do that during prayer, don't really think it's reverent but hey do you, but I almost let my laugh go holy snap.

Well everything was going good and then we asked hii to pray and he said no that he won't pray to know our message is true which was a first for me but anyways we continued and asked him to say a kneeling prayer and he said no I would like to have a prayer standing up and we were like uhh ok then and when he was praying I opened my eyes a little bit (whoops) and saw him flappin his arms like he was going to fly and it was pretty crazy and we walked out like wow well he will be fun to teach! hahahha But overall it was good!

The last thing is this week we had our first baptism to Hermano Antonio! It was so awesome to see how excited he was to change his life!  (In the pictures he doesn't look excited but he's not a custom to looking happy. He was a thug ok?) We actually did the baptism in a river because in that area they did not have a font so it was really cool to do that and it was beautiful! Now I know why missionaries always look foward to baptisms because it's the greatest thing to help someone feel the happiness that the gospel brings!!

This week I thought about something I think is really cool, I bet I heard it somewhere before but it really hit me as something that I can apply... 7 Days To Make The Best Week Ever! I think this is something everyone if you think about it we can make sure we spend every day making this week the best week ever!! so I'm not going to tell you where I was when I thought about this but you can use your imagination...

Love you all so much! And idk if anyone sent me letter but I think that the last address I gave was badd haha soo if anybody wanted to send me some letters or like candy from America... I would not complain!!!

Timothy Jay Anderberg

Mexico Guadalajara East Mission

calle 18 de marzo 3088 

 col. las aguilas c.p 45080

 Zapopan Jalisco, Mexico  

Just sayin  :D

or you can just write me an email hhaa

Love you all!!!

Elder Andy

So the pics were the baptism where it was and the other one was we had water build up and there was no drain so I had to dump it out hahha

Dos Meses En El Campo!

Written by Elder Anderberg on March 23, 2015:

Well it's been an awesome ride so far! I have two months in the field and it's been great! I actually can't remember any of it but this last week went by so so fast! It was crazy!!

We did Splits, I think it is in English, this week where I went with another person for our zone leader to see how my companion works and stuff, so he went to another place that we have called Tanaquillo, which is a place in our area that's about an hour in bus from where we serve and talked to one of our investigators. But he has some problems and his date to be baptized was this week. But he had to have an interview with the president of the mission. But since we have been meeting with him I can see how bad he wants to change, he has two daughters and have tattoos all over and he just looks like a straight up gangster, right now he is in the process of building his house and it's big so we think he is rich.  haha His name is Antonio, he is way nice and when I am with him I can talk in Spanish so well and I'm so excited for him!

Also this week when we were on splits we taught an investigator of theirs and we brought the president of their rama, I think it's branch in English. But honestly our lesson I think was terrible at first because every time we would start to explain something he would jump in and explain it so much different but it was so hard not to laugh. I had to hold my self so hard, she was explaining about how Jehovah witnesses believe that Jehovah is God BUT we know he's Jesus Christ and she was getting into some deep doctrine and just kept talking and talking and then we would try to talk and she would go with one of the things that we say and go so deep and my companion was bugged but I was just trying not to laugh because she just kept going and going and at the end I told her that no matter what we tell her she needs to pray because God knows everything and so on and then the President took over from and and I chuckled a little bit. I was trying so hard but it was funny to me that she just kept goin and didn't have a point where she didn't know something and I told him like 5 times we need to go because lessons were only suppose to be 1 hour or less but it was 2 hours haha oh man I enjoyed it though! I think that they needed to go and explain everything a little simpler if that's a word, gosh it's hard to speak in English now! 

So today we were with  the other missionaries and we went to the park to play soccer and they had a rock climbing wall and we looked at it and said that's not tall at all we will see you at the top! But when we actually got up there we were all so scared and then I found out that they are also both afraid of heights and when they were going down they were so scared and it was so funny! They are not very athletic so going up and down was a little bit difficult but oh man it was so funny when we were up there we were laughing so hard because we were all so scared and it looked so small before we climbed it but when we got to the top it was like well that was a bad idea. But ya that was fun!

Everything's been going good though! Oh! Almost forgot! The investigator who needed the interview did have it and he is all good to be baptized this week! So I'll have pictures for that next week. I'm super excited for him! We might do it in a river because they don't have a font where he lives but if not then we are going to have to find some way for everyone from there to come here and do the service! We will see! But he is a straight up ganster that changed his life so I am super excited that he is doing it for reals...  The whole time I've been here everyone says they want a change but don't actually do anything about it but he is my first investigator who did everything he committed to do and when we told him not to drink coffee he said ah man well I want this change so much that it will be easy for me to do it. I'm so pumped to baptized a thug!

 

We visited an investigator this last week also that said that she knows that the church is true and really wants to be baptized and her husband is working on it but I feel really good about her and she is keeping all the commitments that we give!  It's exciting!! 

I think the biggest thing I learned this week is learn to enjoy the moment because this moment right now will never come back, I cant believe how fast time is going, I left my home three and a half months ago and it's insane, it used to be I could look at a clock and time would slow down, maybe it's just that I'm in Mexico but now when I look at a clock time goes faster! It's like I hit the pillow and then I'm 5 mins from hitting it again, my companion said that once you hit 7 months you hit the pillow and your on month 8... but now were off to another week!! 

Hasta proxima samana!!

Elder Andy!

(At this point it's just my name)

Rain Rain and more Rain!

Written by Elder Anderberg on March 16, 2015:

So this week it rained every single day! I didn't think that the solar water for the shower would stop working when it was cold...  I have had cold showers this whole week. I'm starting to understand what they said when the mission turns you into a man. By Thursday I didn't even scream when I got into the shower. And there was a spider on the ceiling and I killed it with my bare hands... kind of. But when it rains we get to take the bus because we are not aloud to go swimming on the mission.

 This week I had one thing i felt like I needed to work more on and it was getting investigators to understand why its important to go to church. So I prayed for that, the next day we had a whole zone conference where the mission Pres came and told the best way to get investigators to church! Like what!! So this week we had 5 investigators at church!!  That's the first time, in like a  month, in this area!! I was so pumped! I'll tell you what, if you have faith then anything is possible! Faith is the most important thing to have and that's why it's the first principle of the Gospel! The Lord wants to bless us but first we have to show him we are willing to do the work. Faith is a principle of action. If you work hard and show the Lord you are trying your best and proving you have faith in him he will bless every aspect of your life!!!  

Sorry don't have too much time this week for a real long one but I thought I'd let everyone know that the cholos here all know me by guero. We are friends and they always ask for pass along cards and we think they just use them to smoke, so we don't give them. haha All the people get real drunk and high here and stop us and try to talk to us and it's so funny. So we try to talk to them but they can't. My comp tells me they are my best friends.

I forgot to take pics this week but next week :)

Something I heard this week was try to have a prayer for everything you are grateful for and that when you focus on the good and none of the bad you realize all you have and it makes it a lot easier to be happy!!! The Lord always blesses us  in so many ways but sometimes we don't realize what he does for us!   

Yesterday I got my first kiss in 3 monthsss.... haha jk! But really it's a custom here for the women to give everyone they know a kiss on the cheek and yesterday we were in a family home evening and a lady walked in and shook the other missionary's hands and when she shook mine she bent over and gave me a kiss and I was like uhhhh... did I just sin?  Everybody was laughing so hard but I know that they are just jelly. 

Until next week my dear family!

Elder Andy

(Because the Mexicans can't say Anderberg)