June 27, 2009

Hey Everyone!

This week has been even better than the last. I have really loved this week. It was amazing. There was one little downer, but the rest was just happy all week long. We were there to see that family get baptized-and there was an investigator that came there-that we actually didn't know. He was there, and after we watched a church movie, and he just started crying during it. So amazing. He is so ready to hear the gospel. Way amazing. Then, we got to see the Gutierrez family in church, after going and giving their daughter a blessing, and watching the peace of the blessing just filling their home. It was amazing. The Lord truly is blessing us. It is so amazing. Then, we found this teenage girl about two weeks ago, and we have been wanting to get to know her family. Well, this week we went to invite her to English class, and Her mother came out and talked to us for a while, and then invited us in to talk to us. It truly was a huge highlight of the week. Finally getting in with this family-it was incredible. Well, then we were getting everything ready for transfers. THEY ARE THIS WEEKEND-WHICH MEANS NEXT WEEK IS GOING TO BE INSANE! And well, I had to run out to another area to do a baptismal interview, but we stopped at these investigators home on the way to talk to them and invite them to the baptism of some other people tomorrow. And they father looked at me, and said, ¨I recognize you. You were the first missionary to talk to me, to come and bring me the book of Mormon into my home.¨ I then remembered the day I found out about Blake, we went out to the area Villa Harding Green to work and find people-I said it was one of my most successful afternoons of finding people. Well, we got transfers, and I am still Financial Secretary, but I am now in the area of Villa Harding Green. I am so excited to work with him and his family. I cant even explain it. I love this work so much. Yes, it can be tough, and yeah, there are tough times. But there is so much to be learned, and so much to be done, that we cant let the tough times beat us up. We cant afford to let hard times beat us down as missionaries. We have to be ready at all times to give Our Heavenly Fathers Children their opportunity to hear about the Restored Gospel.The time truly is going so quickly. It makes me sad to see that a year has already passed. I don't even know how other missionaries can say that their time is going so slow. It really is just going faster and faster all the time. I am not a perfect missionary in any way shape or form. But I am telling you now, the Lord has a serious need for missionaries, and it truly is such a blessing and opportunity to be one of his servants in this time, and to have received my call to serve in THIS mission.One of the Hermanas in my district was having a really tough time this week. She is actually very known in this mission for being a successful missionary. She is amazing at what she does. But she has just been feeling down lately because her success has not been what she is used to. I thought back on a lesson I had learned a few months back when i felt the same way. If we can remember Zion´s Camp, and how the Lord sent them all out to battle, and they never actually fought the battle. Often times in life, we feel frustrated with things that didn't go like we thought they would, or should. But, we know that from Zions Camp, so many Church leaders were taught, and changed in ways they never would have had they never embarked in their voyage. Sometimes in the mission, it is the same thing. The work of the Lord needs to go forth. And sometimes he needs to reform US in order that we can be EVEN MORE useful in his hands. We truly need to learn what the Lord wants us to, where we are, and not be so worried about getting through it, that we miss what there was to be gained.I truly am so happy. I am loving my mission and will continue to do so.

Brett Chase Andersen

P.S. A few pictures more.

First is a picture of my new companion Elder Hilton from Sacramento California.

Second Our little mission clan-and Hermana Hansen is the only one cool enough to be part of it up to now.

Third Another picture from last week. we all sat on these posts that were conveniently placed. i thought it was kind of cool looking.
¨Lo haré siempre, y cada vez mejor!¨

June 20, 2009

Just a few pictures for everyone!

Hope you get a laugh out of them. I sure do.

1. Andy in front of the Frankopan

2. The City and the Beach from the Lighthouse

3. Office Boys

4. Office Rodeo

5. Stewart Hanging one handed from a bar

6. Office Guys at the Top of the Lighthouse

7. Mini Combi

8. Combi stuck on the Beach

9. Dahl Sleeping in the Combi

10. Dahl in front of the Frankopan

11. Dahl Zucaritas (Frosted Flakes name down here)
¨Lo haré siempre, y cada vez mejor!¨

Saturday, June 13, 2009

This week has been one of the best, and one of the slowest weeks.We have worked so hard and found a lot of great people, but we are having a tough time helping these people progress. We have a bunch of people who think we are good people, but will not follow through on their commitments. We have put ourselves to work hard this week, and it has been great. Sometimes you can have a wonderful week with lots of success and still not feel quite there. But this week, we felt GREAT!!! Heck, we still feel great. It is so true, that He only ever asks for our best, and if we give it to him, we truly do feel so good about our work this week. As for the weather that everyone has been asking about. We are into the low 40´s. It doesn't snow here at all. Snow has happened once here in the last 10 years, and some people were so mad because they never got to see it. (That is to say, it didn´t stick on the ground-it just fell for about 30 minutes). It is humid here though, so you can feel pretty cold down to your core-As for us, we are used to even colder, and we are walking around, so it isn't too bad. We usually just go around with a sweater over our shirts, and that seems to be good enough. As far as the new President that is coming. He will get here on July 1st in the morning, and President Spitale will leave July 1st in the afternoon. Everything is pretty much set-we are trying to make it just a very smooth transition. We have zone conference this week, and I already know that President Spitale is going to cry. NO DOUBTS in my mind. He really is such an amazing guy. There are so many things I wish I could learn to be able to do that he does. He truly is an incredible man. It gets dark pretty early here-about 6:00. That makes doing contacts a little difficult :)We have the biggest house in the mission. VERY LARGE! 4 bedrooms, 1 and 1/2 bathrooms, a large kitchen and dining room, and a family room. With a good sized backyard (that had a swimming pool-but yeah...) So, yeah-nice house. Oh, and we drive vehicles here in the office. We have the Volkswagen Van, and the Peugot something. Some french car. Sometimes President´s van. But yeah. Lots of crazy stuff going on. Just eating it up, and having a good time. Well, that really is about it for this week. I am sorry its not very long. There really isn't a whole lot to talk about this week....Except for those of you who might know this guy(Mikey and Dad)- We were at a members house eating dinner this week, and they were talking about their missionary that baptized them. Brandon Doman was his name. I know who he is, but I didn't know he served here. You two at least have the responsibility to write me back and tell me if you remember him. (I do, this is really just a test for you) It made me laugh.Love you all, and take care of yourselves.BRETT
¨...¡PERO MAL CHE!...¨ELDER ANDERSEN

I Forgot

I cant believe I forgot to tell you. I feel so dumb for forgetting. I am in an area with four elders. My companion and I, and the other two elders. So fun, and yet at the same time kind of strange. You see, we are all part of the same Branch here, and so some of the members pick favorites. And we overlap in our work sometimes. So funny, about a week ago we found this GREAT family, but they didn't have a lot of time, so we shared just a short lesson with some commitments to read the book of Mormon, and pray. Well, we had planned to go back this week, and we were working with some of our other investigators and getting them to church, so we didn't manage to go with them to church. But we got to Church, and they were there. We were so amazed...for a minute. The other Elders had found them with a little more time later in the week, and had brought them to church. AMAZING LADY. Well, now they all have baptismal dates for the 20th of this month. SO PREPARED! We are not going to be the Elders that teach them-the others are going to do that, but we are just so happy that this family is so excited to get baptized and be at church. Then yesterday, after a long day at the office, we got home to drop some things off, and a member came over to us and asked us for a book of Mormon. He wrote his testimony in it, and a personal message for a referral that he wanted us to go meet. . We are out for two years to open up our hearts and love these people, and when we truly dedicate ourselves to it, the Lord trusts us with his children to bring them into His fold. Thank you so much for your friendship CHE! IYou just keep me posted on how everything is going for you!-Your Missionary Elder Andy(as I am now better known here)¨

...¡PERO MAL CHE!...¨ELDER ANDERSEN

Saturday, May 30, 2009

I am absolutely loving my time here. We are just eating this up. Laughs, smiles, frowns, and tears. I had had my fare shares of ups and downs before the mission, but nothing like I have hit in the mission. It has been absolutely insane. I have never had highs this high, nor lows this low. Satan truly is out and fighting hard, and we are doing what we can to fight back. The Lord is on our side if we allow him. The humbling you go through on the mission is not something that is enjoyable. But in a way so refreshing. You can feel the Saviors love so close around you. I have felt so much of my Saviors love for me, and so much help from him in times of trial I can do no doubting of His power. My cousin has passed away, I have seen investigators reject our Savior, members who have lost the testimony they once had, offended people who refuse to try the power of forgiveness, people who don’t believe and/or don’t understand the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. My heart has been broken so many times on behalf of what has passed. But in the same breath, to see the Power of the Atonement truly touch somebody´s heart, to see somebody gain a Faith that they never had, or to see somebody recognize their Purpose here on earth, or to understand more fully the Plan of Salvation, to accept the waters of Baptism, or to honestly know that the Savior has walked by your side are feelings that far surpass the heartbreak. The Savior asks that we dedicate two years of our lives here on earth to give everything we can to everyone we can-but it is no real sacrifice when you come to see the Love of the Savior influence and change the Hearts of our Brothers and Sisters. No, the mission is not easy. Never is, and never will be. But there are so many things that you can learn and see, that I just would never have had if I had not come. I love my mission, and I cant think of anything I would rather be doing in this time than being here in Argentina. I am learning so much every single day, and I hope that I can become the Person that My Father in Heaven knows I can become. He knows my potential, and I hope to one day reach that potential. Thank you so much for all of your support and love. Take care of yourself.With Love, Elder Andy
¨...¡PERO MAL CHE!...¨ELDER ANDERSEN

Saturday May 16, 2009

Getting out this week was indeed really tough. My comp was in physical therapy, and seeing doctors about his knee, and then basically they all said the same thing. He needs to lose some weight. He has gained about 20 kilos in the mission already (that's about 45 pounds). So, we are getting working on him, but he doesn't have a lot of desires to change what he is eating. So, well yeah. So, whats the address of the new house. I was going to send a package, but I don't know where to send it. So, just help me out a little bit, and let me know. This week has been way busy with trying to get everything ready for transfers. Money flying everywhere, and Buenos Aires was more than frustrated with us. The Internet was down for five days, and so they had no way of keeping track of all the stuff we were doing, but they kept seeing money appear and disappear in their account. We finally started getting things organized, and so I am working here today. And on my P-day too. Thus the reason I am writing you. I have a new companion, and it is a bitter sweet thing. I love my companion now, but I know the Elder that is coming to be my companion and he is an absolute stud! I am so excited to be with him. I met him first in January of this year. he was in my zone, and i stayed at his house every weekend for a month and a half. Then he left, and then I left Santa rosa, and now we are both meeting up in the Office again, but now we are comps! I am way excited. Things are going well here. I am really loving the work. Life kicks ya pretty hard some times-but you can kick it harder....Its one of my favorite sayings. I adapted that a few weeks ago, and that helped me get through some of the rough things that have gone on lately. I am probably feeling the best I have in my entire mission. I am feeling so good, and feeling so happy. I don't have anything to direct all of it to. or to give credit to. But I am just feeling so good right now. I love it here. I love these people, and sometimes I just don't feel like there is enough time in one day. You know what I mean? I don't speak perfect, nor am I the best missionary. But I am in love with what I do, and I know that I am being the best missionary I can be. And to my Savior, I know that's what counts. I am working hard everyday to be a better missionary, to be a better instrument in His hands. I hope one day I can reach that point.Thank you so much for all of your support, love and prayers. SIGAN ADELANTE!

SIMMONS-good friend of mine

What do I do? Take a guess.
Went to do a little Hiking(A little taste of home)

My desk in the office

The guys at the base of the mountain

Driving in Argentina

Me at the Mountain