Monday, September 15, 2008

What's for Dinner, Dad?

Andy's Souper Burger
A Guy's Recipe
Serves 1 hungry family

1 pound lean ground beef (AKA hamburger)
3-10 oz cans of Campbell's Vegetable (Alphabet) Soup
(can also use 1 large 26 oz can & 1 small one)
2 Tbsp dried onion flakes (or 1/2 small onion)
1/2 cup molasses (can also use 3 T brown sugar)
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp dry mustard
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cinnamon

1 slice dry toast/serving
1 slice of American cheese/serving
--------------------
Brown ground beef over medium heat (7). Drain. Stir in next 7 ingredients and reduce heat (2 or low). Stir to prevent burning; simmer 20-25 minutes or until flavors are blended. Serve over toast. Top with cheese slice. Rinse & repeat. :-)

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Highlights from Logrono

Anyone know how to get the curly thing over the n?

First thing, I love it here. Wow it is SO much better in the field than the MTC. But that was a very important part of my training. It looks like the AF knew what they were talking about when they tested my ability to learn a language cause I am apparently doing very well. Everybody complements me on my Spanish and says that they can´t believe I am in my first area and didn´t speak before the mission. It is great and fun because I could just jump into the work. But I still have much to learn. There is a word- atender- and it means to attend to or entertain. So when we knock on doors they say No puedo atenderlo, and it sounds like no puedo entenderlo. So I was like, "they can´t understand me?" So then I would say the same thing over but much slower. Then they wouldn´t answer. It was great until I was told of this new word. Haha. But yeah, I was pretty scared the first night to do any contacting, but since then I have been doing it a lot. I even have started ringing the houses, which is hard because they all live in apartments so we just buzz each door until someone lets us in and then knock on doors all the way down the building. Then we go to the next one. It is crazy because we don`t have a whole lot of success with stuff like this. Apparently when my trainer Elder Zirkle got here 4 weeks ago the pool was dead. So for 4 weeks he has been working his butt off trying to get investigators and stuff. So when I got here we had a few. It is crazy because we set up visits all the time on the street and then when we go to them the person is not there or it´s a fake address. But we just start knocking their neighborhood. The city Logroño is a modern city, not big but tons of people. But it is crazy how many people we run into again and again. There is a great rama(branch) here but we don´t know many of the people in it yet so we are focusing on visiting the members a bit to get their support. It´s funny, in Spain eating in members homes is not very popular. We mostly have to cook for ourselves. It is weird, we have a little breakfast-cereal mostly- then at 2 we go back for mediodía and eat a big meal. Then we go work and come back at 9:30, plan, try to wind down and maybe eat a small sandwich or something, then we go to bed. So it´s really different, but so great. I like it cause we only have to cook once a day.lol. And we take turns cooking for the others. Four of us Elders share a piso(apartment) and there are also 2 Hermanas(sister missionaries) in the city with us. I can´t really describe everything so much, but it is really cool to be on a mission. A good feeling is at night when you finally finish and lay down in bed. It feels so good, because you know that if you had laid down earlier in the day you would feel guilty for wasting time, but at night it is so awesome. I really like going to bed knowing that I have worked really hard all day long. I hope I can keep that after my mission.lol. So, now just random stuff:I learned a good tool from ROTC of keeping my eyes "caged" because, yeah, there are things you shouldn´t look at everywhere. Billboards, stores, metro stops, inside any store except the grocery. It is a good skill to have and also you can focus on the people coming towards you and making contacts.Contacts are fun, but sometimes really funny. Last night we were going back to the piso and I was like, okay I will make the last contact of the night. So I tried to stop a couple passing by me, and they just said "tenemos prisa" which means, I´m in a hurry. And My companion was like, okay, I will do the last one of the night and we got excited and he tried to stop a lady and she didn´t say a word to him, just kept on walking. It doesn´t sound funny now, but it was hilarious then. We were trying to end the night well and it just fell.lol.So There are a ton of muslims here. A ton. And they are so cool. However we are not allowed to teach them because their families will have legal rights to kill them if they are baptized. It´s really sad, because we tracted into tons of them last night and its kind of awkward to get out of the contact. I feel bad every time not trying to teach them. But rules are rules. But they are so cool and so nice. We talked to one man for a long time. This month is Ramadan and they don´t eat as long as the sun is out so we were tracting into them right when they were eating after a long hungry day, so we felt bad. But they are always really nice.One motivation we have for contacting people well is so that we can have a lesson and sit down instead of walking around the city all day, which hurts. I was pretty sore the first few days and am still bad, but I am getting used to it. Also, it´s funny how we get pumped up to talk to people. Elder Zirkle will just go, hey, this man looks really interested, or- I bet this family really wants to hear how they can be together forever. It really does get us excited and remind us of our purpose. Our investigator are all really nice people, and it´s sad when they don´t come to church or read from the Book of Mormon.So I am really excited and happy to be here and we have seen already a small miracle with a man we contacted, and I expect good things from this area. President Duvall said that he really likes Elder Zirkle and he expects me to be one of the best missionaries in the mission after Elder Zirkle trains me. We talked yesterday about making this the best companionship we can and something we will remember for a long time. So we are both really excited and happy and we will try our hardest to make this city a better place. I love all of you and love this Gospel. -Elder Brett Anderson

Pictures from Tageuragao

Maybe Kyle will stay there long enough for me to learn how to spell it!






This is Kyle's first day in his mission. He had worn the same clothes for 3 days of traveling. He didn't get to take a shower or shave until the next morning. I hope his deodorant was working!

I'm pretty sure there is some rule against having a knife like this. At least a mom would hope so:) They ended up taking the coconuts outside and smashing them on the cement to get them open.


Kyle and Elder Wheeler did a service project planting coconut trees around a corn field. They had a great time and got a huge bag of corn to take home. But they had to teach them how to shuck it first!

What's for dinner, Mom?

Honey-Pecan Chicken
Makes 6 servings

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey
2 cups wheat squares cereal, crushed
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

Stir together soy sauce and honey. Combine crushed cereal and pecans. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Dip in soy sauce mixture. Dredge in cereal mixture. Arrange on foil covered baking sheet. Bake at 425° for 15-20 minutes.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Weekends Part II

We had a bunch of friends over for an Asian night on Saturday. And I do mean a bunch of friends. Over 50 people came and brought amazing Asian food to share. Thanks to everyone for making the night such a great success. Next time you need to bring the recipes as well! And yes, the guys did end up in the pool--clothes and all.





Weekends!

We have had a couple of fun packed weekends. Last weekend we finally made it to Mud Island. After 3 years of failed attempts the end result was a lot of fun. I was really impressed with everything, from the to scale model of the Mississippi river to the museum. It gave me hope that Memphis can do something right! Afterwards we went to eat at Bigfoots--no we didn't tackle the Sasquatch ( a 4 lbs. burger). We are saving that until we have lots of hungry guys with us!



Where the mighty Mississippi begins.



We are really "Walkin' in Memphis" or rather on Memphis.






Sydney continues her journey south.



And we finally make it to the Gulf! Thank heavens the weather was beautiful. No sign of Gustav in sight..



















I don't usually brag and show off things that I have made, but these were just so cute I can't help it. They were my first attempt at making a quilt. They are for the NICU at Le Bohneur Children's Hospital. They are about 18 inches square. They make me smile!












Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Inspiring Words from Kyle...

So I had my first baptism Saturday. I was able to baptize James, who is probably the coolest investigator ever. I’m convinced I still don’t appreciate him half as much as I should. Maybe when I get some more experience. He always reads, and is way excited. He even did a lot of things on his own that made me think and want to apply to myself. His questions were on a whole different level from some of our other investigators. Things like “I feel the spirit when I am at church and when I pray and read the scriptures, but how can I feel it all the time?” It might not seem like much, but other people we have to try to convince that they want the spirit. After the baptism he just kept on talking about how “delicious” he felt. That is the literal translation, but it is used for things like : “this breeze is delicious”, or something like that. I got to sit by him during church on Sunday, and he was so excited to get the gift of the holy ghost and to take the sacrament, it really impressed on me the blessings we have and the importance of sharing it. When we planned on Sunday I couldn’t help but think that when we were planning to go tracting, we were planning to find James’ replacement. Fortunately we can keep teaching him as a recent convert. He might even go out with us. He’s even brought up the idea of serving a mission himself. He’s only 24. It’s been a way good experience, and he’s a way fun guy that brightened up my day a couple of times after we had had a disappointing morning.

Brett Made It!!


Here is Brett's first email from his mission area!

¡Hola! So this is gonna be another brief- I am here and alive and don`t need anything yet- emails. Wow. We went to the mission home yesterday by plane then we got our areas assigned. It was really sweet and the ayudántes(Assistants to the President) made it really suspensefull. It was just like Christmas. So luckily I only had to take a 2 hour bus ride to my area last night- some Elders had to wait till today to take a 12 hour train or bus ride. ugh. But yeah, I came to beautiful Logroño. It is a city a bit southeast of Bilbao, pretty sizeable so you might be able to find it on a map. My trainer is Elder Zirkle, he is really great and President Duvball thinks a lot of him. So I am stoked. This is just a quick one, but I will send you a longer one on p-day(Monday) with more details. I love you all and am excited to finally begin. The work here is steadily growing, and I am teaching a commandment tonight that I haven´t taught before- in Ingles or Español. But it is just studying the scriptures. Well take care and have fun, because I am.bye. -Elder Anderson