Week 52: Life in Paris

First off, shout out to my bro Markus! It's his birthday today!! If you haven't said happy birthday to him yet, you should! He's the coolest dude ever and I'm so lucky to have him as my brother!

This week was an interesting one haha not a tone of stuff happened, but I had some good experiences! Last Wednesday was the first training that I have had to give as a Zone Leader. I was pretty nervous about it! It went great though, and the training that we gave was really inspiring for all the missionaries. It was about how we are all in this together and that w're all on the same team! Also, that we should always be an invitation to learn. That's so true! People should see members of the church as invitations to learn! We should always be ready to share the Gospel when the opportunity presents itself! It was a great training, and a great learning experience for me!  

I also got to meet some of our amis here, and that has been really fun! We're teaching some great people here! Even though I don't know them super well yet, I'm loving it here!

One of our amis is Alejandro, a man from Peru. He's super nice! We were planning on meeting with him last Saturday, and the day before he called us and asked if he could invite a friend to come too. His friend is Rolando, and he lived in the US for a few months. So we met with them, gave them a tour of the church, and turns out that Rolando's whole family are members and his brother served a mission in Columbia! But Rolando isn't a member! So it's going to be pretty excited teaching him! Miracles happen! They both also came to church and Sunday and said that they really liked it. Again, miracles happen.

That's about all for this last week, I'm sorry that it isn't that exciting! I'll try to have more adventures to share next week! And pictures too!

BUT, before next week, we have General Conference this weekend! Go watch it! Watch it online! Make sure you hear it somehow, because it's an incredible opportunity and experience!

Keep it real! à la prochaine!

Elder Daniel Anderson

Week 51: Livin' In Paris

Well, I'm in Paris! You know, living that life of a missionary. It's definitely a lot different here! It's not what I was used to before, but I love it! I started my mission in a small ville here in France (Poitiers, which is now no longer in my mission, but in the southern France mission) then I went to Charleroi which was a pretty good sized ville, and now I'm in Paris. Sure, we only have a part of it and the suburbs around it, but it's a whole lot different than anything I've done before! My life has definitely gotten busier!

It was sad saying goodbye to everyone in Charleroi, and seeing people cry is never my favorite things, but it was time for a change. The Lord needed me somewhere else! The transfer went fine, and it was exciting to get to my new ville! My new companion is Elder Lamb, he is from Utah, and he is awesome! He's super funny and we get along great! I'm really excited about this transfer!

I don't have any pictures this week because I forgot to bring the stuff with me, but next week I'll put them up! We started this week by doing some renovation on a house! Not bad, right? We didn't do a TON, but that's impossible in one day. It was a cool experience though! We were doing service for a member, and she was so thankful! And she fed us really well afterwards!

On Friday we had mission council, which was a long meeting for all the leaders. It was a really good meeting! I sure learned a lot and I'm excited about the miracles that we're going to see in our mission! After the meeting, we headed back to our area because we had a sports night planned, but I didn't play any sports haha I sat and talked with a less active member that gave us a ride. He is super awesome and I was really happy that I got to talk with him!

After that was a lot of planning, a lot of missionary work, and the church on Sunday! I got to meet a member from Thailand that we knew when we lived in Thailand, so that was super cool! Church was great, as always, and I even got to go up and introduce myself and bear my testimony!

We're going to be having an exciting week, so I'm looking forward to it! I hope you guys all have an awesome week too!

Keep it real and keep working hard!

Elder Daniel Anderson

Week 50: Je vais en France!

Well, it's the day of transfer emails. I guess every few emails home, I say that haha but it seems like there's a lot of time in between!

I'm going to start with a quick summary of how this week went though haha. First, last P-day, our Ward Mission Leader, Patrick, took us to see a castle! It was incredible haha I had my pre conceptions of how it was going to be, but it blew my mind. Here are some pictures:

Ephesians 6:13-19 The Armor of God!

So, that was a pretty awesome way to start the week! I was loving life pretty good!

Then after that, our ami Dogan is still doing incredible and is super excited for his baptism in October! He is doing EVERYTHING possible to keep all of the commandments and wants to make the changes in his life! That is what the Gospel is all about! October 19th is going to be an incredible day in Charleroi!

I've been feeling pretty sure that I was leaving Charleroi soon, so I've seen a lot of members, less active families, and amis that I've worked with during the last 6 months to say goodbye. It's sad! But I know I'll come back to see all the people here someday! And we've left them with the bread of life, and that can keep them happy for their entire lives!

Sunday, we headed up to Brussels for special conference with Bishop Dean M. Davies of the Presiding Bishropric. It was an AMAZING conference! All the missionaries had to stand, along with a lot of members, because there just wasn't enough space for everyone! Bishop Davies also gave an amazing talk and I learned a lot! He shared a story about when he was on the high council and how he told his daughter one time that he had to go to another church that day (to give a talk) and she responded "Heavenly Father won't be very happy!" haha he shared a lot of great stories with us!

Then last night I got a call from Président Poznanski. Well, he gave me a little heads up of what transfers were going to be like for me! I'm heading to Antony to be a zone leader! I'm pretty nervous about it haha but I know that as long as I do what the Lord asks of me, that things will be great! It'll take a lot of prayer and work, but I'm willing to do it! Oh, and Antony is southern Paris area, so big city here I come haha

Sorry, that's all I have time to write, but here is my new address:

27, rue de Fontenay

92340 Bourg-La-Reine

France

I hope you all have an awesome week! Make it memorable, and make it spiritual! Thank you all for all of your prayers!

Elder Daniel Anderson

Week 49: Last Week

Well, this is the last week of the transfer. It's always sad to see the end of a transfer come around. C'est triste! I've been in Charleroi for about 6 months now, and sadly, I'm probably going to be leaving next week. It'll be an awesome new adventure! But I'll still miss it here.

So, a miracle that happened last week that I forgot to share. We were street contacting here in town, and we decided to walk down this street, that really didnt have many people on it, but we decided to go down it anyways. Halfways down the road, someone comes running up to us and asked if we were Mormon, and it turns out that he was a Bulgarian member who was in town for 2 months for work, but had no idea where the church was and can't speak french (he speaks english though haha). So we were able to help him out and it was a nice little miracle :)

I went to Mons this last week for exchanges! It was awesome, and it's been along time since I've been there. It's a beautiful city! A lot of cool stuff happened during the exchange too! We met an american guy who plays basketball for the team in Mons, and he played college ball for Xavier. His name is Justin Cage haha he immediately offered us free tickets to come to some games because we're american haha. Just after that we were talking to an older lady and in the middle of the conversation she turned to me and said "I bet you go out dancing with girls a lot huh? You look like you would have a lot of girls to go out dancing with. Is that true?" hahaha it made me laugh and then got to explain that we don't do that kind of stuff as missionaries haha. Later that night we were knocking doors and an Italian guy let us in and fed us pasta! He had known a member of the church when he was young and so he wanted to treat us a little bit haha.

We also met an awesome guy street contacting that was super interested and only spoke english. He already had a Book of Mormon and wanted to learn more, but he just didnt know where to go! Good thing there are missionaries!

Back in Charleroi, we had another miracle! We had received a referral from the chruch headquarters (from the website) of someone who wanted to meet with us. Awesome right?! Well, his phone number didnt work and we got his address, but not his house number. So what did we do? We went and knocked all the doors on his road! And guess what happened! We didnt find him. Instead, we found a family. AWESOME. They had a lot of questions about religion, and they are really believing, but they didnt understand why there were so many interpretations of the Bible. They also wanted clarification on a few things, and it was just a perfect rendez-vous! And they loved talking with us and they really want to meet with us again! We're still going to try to find the other guy that we got the info for, but we know that one way or another, the Lord wanted us on that street for a reason!

Oh wait, another miracle. Dogan has a baptismal date! The 19th of October! He's so excited about it and so are we! We had to put it a little later because he doesnt have a lot of time to meet with us, but he is really pumped and can't wait to get baptized!

This next Sunday we have a Conference in Brussels with the Second Counselor of the Presiding Bishropric which should be awesome! It's for the whole stake so I'll get to see lots of people that I know from all over Belgium! Plus, listen to a general authority haha not too shabby!

I gotta hit the road, but I'll leave you with some lyrics from a hymn:

Be Still, My Soul verse 2:

"Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake to guide the future as he has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake; All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still, my soul: The waves and wind still know, His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below."

We are always being looked after, don't you worry! Pray to your Father in heaven when you need comfort, and you will be comorted. That's a promise!

Have an awesome week! And keep it real!

Oh, and I'll send a bunch of pictures next week!

Elder Daniel Anderson

Week 48: Life and Miracles

So, this was an interesting week. Now that I've checked my email, I know that a lot has been going on back home! It's a little weird because life just goes on without me haha. It's an interesting thing to think about...but I guess life is going on over here too while I work! Also, a lot of my old friends in the mission are heading home this transfer because they've finished their missions! It's exciting for them! I'm pumped for them and it's cool to think that I'll hear about how their lives are going while I'm still on my mission haha. They are friends for life!

Things have been going pretty well here!  This week started with a Zone Conference with Président and Soeur Poznanski in Brussels, and that was awesome! Interviews with them are always incredible! We also talked about a personal activity in Preach My Gospel on pg.152. It asks you to think about the end of your mission and think about what you want to have accomplished. Here are the questions:

1) What do you want to say you have done as a missionary?

2) What do you want to have become?

3) What differences would you want others to notice in you?

The best part about this activity is that we can apply it to any goal and any amount of time! I'm challenging you all to do the same thing with some goals that you have! Answer those questions and work to achieve those goals!

Also at zone conference we learned that there are 257 missionaries in our mission, and we're going to have more soon. We also have 15 senior couples. That's a lot of people! We have also been planning to have Elder Oaks come and have a conference with our mission, but he actually can't come. Well, he's still coming, but he'll be too busy opening a 3rd stake in Paris and converting another district to a stake! We were preparing for his arrival by having the goal to get 100 baptisms before his arrival (starting in June) and guess what! We got it! 2 weeks before his arrival! Miracles happen! We accomplished double the average! It's a little bit of a bummer that we won't have a conference with Elder Oaks, but it's still amazing to see what we can accomplish when we put our trust in the Lord!

Last Week I mentioned that a member introduced us to a friend of his that had some questions about the life after this one. So we talked to him last week, invited him to church, and invited him to pray everyday. He said he wasn't sure if he'd come to church, but he would pray. Well, he showed up at church on Sunday! He said that during the week he prayed everyday, and he could see the change in his life! He was more calm and even when things happened that would normally bother him, he remained calm. So, he decided to check out the church because there must be something to it! And he said he would bring his son with him next week! It's incredible! Members do the best work!

Well, I've gotta head out, but I'll leave you with some pictures from this week.

A Bulgarian member that chased us down on the street!

Awesome doorbell!

This is my companion, ward mission leader, and the return missionary who was visiting this week with his new fiancée!

Oh, and I can't forget, I've gotta give a shout out to Grandma Anderson! Happy Birthday Grandma! I hope it was awesome!

Keep it real! And have a fanatstic week!

Elder Daniel Anderson