Wow what a week it has been! Salt Lake City is amazing, I love it so
much. Tuesday night we spent the night at the mission home which is
actually in the Salt Lake City East mission haha across the street
from the mission Home is President Thomas S. Monson's home! He no
longer lives there but he still owns it President Spendlove's son told
me that he would watch him feed his pigeons every Saturday morning up
until about a year ago. Wednesday morning we went to a church building
had breakfast then a few hours of meetings preparing us for the field.
We were then assigned to our trainers I am in a trio with Elder
Workman from Kansas who has been out 9 months and converted 2 years
ago, and Elder Vano from New Zealand who has been out 17 months and
has a full ride rugby scholarship to BYU and played for the All Blacks
U19 team before his mission. They are super cool and great trainers.
President Spendlove challenged all the new missionaries to give out a
Book of Mormon that day and invite someone to be baptized by Sunday.
Once we got to the field we went to the church to set up my iPad mini
2, then we went out to eat since we didn't have a dinner appointment.
After that we went tracking to meet new people and place my Book of
Mormon. Utah missions are unique because everyone knows who we are,
many people dislike the church and reject or ignore us. On the other
hand there are lots of members who love us and as we walk down the
street cars honk and wave at us haha. When we started tracking Wednesday
I was scared to talk to other people. I feel the same that I
did before my mission and thought of going up to strangers and talking
to them was weird. After the first person I talked to I began to warm
up. We had tons of rejection but the more people we talked to the more
motivated I got. We planned on going to the church building at 9:00
for nightly planning and it was around 8:45 and I still had not placed
my Book of Mormon. At 8:58 I knocked in a door and talked to a man
named Jon, he is Catholic and said he was not interested in our
message or a Book of Mormon. As he was closing the door I began to
testify of The Book of Mormon and the power within it, he opened the
door back up, I testified how it has impacted my life and brought me
closer to Christ than any other book I have ever read. I then
challenged him to read it. He then accepted it at 8:59 haha I was so
excited, I am looking forward to following up with him!
Wednesday evening we also met with the ward mission leader of the 21st
ward, he was super cool. He then took us to Sister Walker's apartment.
She is the daughter of the former Prophet, Ezra Taft Benson and lives
in the same apartment that he did I when he was in the quorum of the
12 apostles! She was so kind to us and gave us ice cream, I used a
metal spoon for the first time in 10 years haha. I was a little
hesitant but I overcame my fear hahahahaha.
We cover the Emigration Stake. Our area is about 10 blocks east of
Temple Square. There are 9 wards and a care center and homeless
branch. President Spendlove has moved many of the missionaries out of
high member populated areas to closer to downtown. He is also putting
most companionship in 1 or 2 wards. Our main focus is going to be in
2 wards, the 21st and 21 north wards, if we tried to be actively
involved in every ward we would be spread too thin and would not be as
productive. Our area is pretty big and covers the UTAH campus so we
have done a ton of walking. Saturday we walked over 10 miles, but it
was great! When we arrived our area book was basically empty, we had
only one investigator and no set appointments so we set up meetings
with all the bishops, stake president and ward mission leaders. We
have met with most of them and talked about the vision for the
missionary work in the stake and where our focus should be.
President Prickett told me that the Banz family in the 27th ward has a
son in the Brazil Goiania mission, where Scott serves, Elder Banz is
currently an AP and probably knows Scott pretty well because they are
both in the office haha I haven't got a chance to meet them yet but I
will for sure stop by this week and talk to them about it!
Saturday night we walked a mile and a half to he University of Utah
campus to meet a college student who filled out a paper in the guest
book at conference and wanted to learn more. Unfortunately he was not
home. On the way back we decided to track in an apartment complex. The
first door we knocked on we were graciously accepted and let in (being
let in feels amazing after being rejected over and over haha) they
were a young married couple named the Köevens. Sister Köeven returned
from her mission in Washington in January and Brother Köeven returned
home from his mission in the Spain Madrid mission in February. They
met a few days later at a DI, got engaged 2 months later and married 2
months after that, crazy! They were so nice and invited us to dinner
Sunday night, it was such a blessing because we did not have a dinner
appointment Sunday night and only had Ramen at our apartment haha they
are super cool! He told me all about his mission in Spain! It was so
fun to hear because Portugal is pretty similar!
Sunday we tracked into many awesome people both members and
non-members and a few potential investigators! We met one member,
Brooks Finlinson who is a professional snowboarder and is sponsored by
like 10 companies! North Face is one of them. We have an
appointment with him later this week. Later that night I practiced
teaching the Restoration to a Brazilian woman in our ward. My
Portuguese is pretty rough but I am so grateful that I have her to
help me practice and she is grateful that she has someone to to speak
Portuguese with! After nightly planning at the church building, we
were walking home and realized that we didn't have the keys. We walked
back to the locked church where the keys lied on the couch. We waited
outside the church for a little while until a bishop came and unlocked
it for us at about 10:20 haha we definitely learned a lesson.
I read President Ezra Taft Benson's talk in the November 1985 ensign,
"Born of God" in study this morning. I love his quote, "The Lord works
from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world
would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of
people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world
would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who
then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior,
but Christ can change human nature." I am so incredibly grateful for
the infinite Atonement of Jesus Christ and his power to change the
hearts of men.
I love the mission field, nothing I have ever done in my entire life
has compared to what I am currently doing as a missionary. It has been
challenging but I am the happiest that I have ever been in my entire
life and I absolutely love Salt Lake City!! I hope that I get to serve
a full transfer here! There have been so many miracles and tender
mercies everyday that continue to testify to me that I have a Heavenly
Father who loves and cares about me. I love what I am doing and am
glad that it is only the beginning!!
--Elder Anderson
Dallin's wasn't able to send pictures for some reason (he said he had several...hopefully next week). BUT a kind mom sent us a picture she took of Dallin with his companions and her little boy with special needs! And, in the mail this week we received a card from Dallin that he wrote to us from the mission home, and it included a picture of him with his mission president and his wife (The Spendloves). So, I'll include them below!
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