From Spain- September 22nd
Hola familia,¿como están? So I am doing amazing here. Thanks to everyone for the packages and the letters and stuff on my birthday. My birthday was areally good day. When I woke up I got up to eat breakfast and my companion was like, Hey, lets go check the mail and see if you got any cards. And I was still a little asleep, but was like, oh okay. So then when we get out of the apartment building,I see the two Hermanas (Sister Missionaries)and they have a present for me and made me a cheesecake. Yeah.It was an amazing start. So then we got ready and studied, and then Hermana Duvall(mission president´s wife) called and wished me a happy birthday and then asked how it was looking. We had a lot of good lessons scheduled, so I said, just great. I am amazed by how much everyone cares for each other in the mission. Hermana and President Duvall are amazing and really love the missionaries. Then we went and contacted andstuff then my companion bought me a great pastry that we eat a lot here. So I am positive that I celebrated my birthday more this time than before my birthday.lol.But yeah, it was a great day. We had a ton of good lessons and worked hard. I also bought a sidebag for myself for my birthday and I like it because it is weird to wear a backpack in a suit. Also, it is stylish...lol... and a little pijo. So I bought it at a place called a chino store, which is....a store owned by chinos (that´s not racist, it´s the spanish word for chinese-honest) and it has the strangest assortment of things. But they are all cheap and is kind of cool. Apparently they have them everywhere but America.And China. So don´t worry, we have been doing missionary stuff too, not just hanging out in the chino. We are teaching some great people. One is Christian.We gave him Moroni´s promise last week then taught him and followed up last night. He is so awesome. He didn´t receive a specific answer because his piso is owned by his work and there are some other people there all the time being loud, but he told us that the time being loud, but he told us that when he was a kid he read from it and felt that it was true.He is so cool, and the full story is amazing and how we found him, but yeah, he has much promise. We are also teaching a lot of other good people. It is hard, but when we visit I can feel God´s love for them and that motivates me to do my best with the language, scriptures, lessons,and being totally obedient. I love being here and getting to know many new great people. I like how I have increased my capacity to care for others.It is a great blessing of the mission. So I will leave now. I wish I could talk to you all more, but, then again, I know that my work is more important. I love you all. -Elder B. Anderson
From September 29th-
Hey! So I am doing great here in beautiful Logroño. Unfortunately everyone else in the city is tired as anything. That is because they have just finished their week long celebration of wine called San Mateo. Of course you have to name it after a Saint. But yeah, it has been interesting. I kind of wish we had something like it in America but cleaner. Like the whole city celebrated and did stuff together. Except the missionaries of course. And let me tell you, contacting is not that fun. The first night was ridiculous. At 9 it was kind of pointless. And packs of youth would roam around with alcohol getting progressively more drunk and we would try to stay away from them. But overall it was cool. They had a bullfight every morning where anyone could go in the ring with a smaller cow and try to not die. We got to go last p-day and watch it. It was really cool- guys were baiting it and another would flip over it. And then there was the drunk guy that got mowed down. That was kind of scary- but then really funny- the cows are smaller and the horns are guarded. I think it would be cool to do in America. So yeah, but also they do crazy other stuff- the main fountain in the city was dyed red so i am sending a picure of that. And there was a lot of firecrackers. Did I say firecrackers? I mean kids would run around throwing dynamite at each other. It was so ridiculous. and loud. But yeah, good week over all. Also, with the festivities, there have been nonstop marching bands with 15 members in them just roaming around the streets. It´s interesting, but they have horrible technique. They have really bad toes.lol. I think Mr. Hopper and Mr. Cox would cringe. But I have fun telling my companion how bad their technique is and he has fun telling me I am a dork. Tell Mr. Cox I think he needs to come to spain and turn some things around. I could be a liason with the whole language thing.lol
From the Philippines:
September 23rd-
So this week has been really good, We had two killer days in a row we just blew out of the water, and it set the stage for the rest of the week. I was so excited. Then we went to zone conference, where they told us not to focus on numbers. Still excited though, just not as much. But my birthday was amazing. Thanks so much for letters and packages, which I was able to get yesterday at zone conference. It was pretty sweet, we haven’t gotten mail for four or five weeks, so I had a good pile built up. But we can always stretch ourselves, so let’s get to work and send me letters. No, but really, the oatmeal brought back memories of Grandma and Grandpa Burgess’ house, especially the sweet dinosaur egg one. I was even smiling this morning when I had to once again scrub my clothes for an hour of my precious preparation day. For my birthday we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant, which was good, but kind of pricey. Then one of the members fed us dinner. They made philippino spaghetti, which I’m really starting to enjoy even more than the normal stuff. It’s really sweet, they even put condensed milk in it, and then there’s chopped up hotdogs, which are different as well, all mixed in. Then they brought out……..A tub of ice cream! Ice cream’s really expensive here. Also, the sisters in my district made me banana ice cream with peanut butter and chocolate bits mixed in. So good. Oh yeah, and thanks a whole lot for the pictures. They're beautiful. And the cookies. I ate about five as soon as I opened the box. And my companion thinks I'm spoiled because you used to buy me my own box, and then one for the family.
One of those moments-So we have a member who gave us some coconuts. It was pretty cool he just knocked them off the tree with a bamboo pole. Unfortunately they still have their green protective fortress-like shells on top of the brown ones. I also have yet to buy my own machete, so they are still sitting in our apartment. Anyways, we were going back to the house at night, and I had this huge coconut in my backpack. So it was already awkward with a huge backpack, and I sat on the back of the motorcycle part of the tricycle, which is a lot more fun than being squished in the carriage with three other people, and I was trying to put my coin purse in my pocket when it fell off on the ground. Right then the driver decided to go, so I slid off the side and picked up my coin purse. By then he was already off, carrying my companion, so I took off running down the main street on a crowded night carrying a huge backpack with a coconut in my hand. I finally caught up to the tricycle, and started to yell stop. But I couldn’t remember it in Tagalog. So I put on a little bit of extra speed, and was running side by side with the driver. He kind of glanced over, and then looked at me weird when I made eye contact. So he slowed down and I hopped back on. Fortunately my companion was inside, and didn’t notice a single thing, so I was spared from ridicule, until I told him about it.
From September 30th-
New Pictures-So the pictures in my package were awesome. They really help build relationships, and came in handy for when we taught last night about temples and temple marriage and sealing (thanks Allison and Matt, and Sydney and Trentin). It really brought personality into the lesson, especially because we are urging the investigator to get a temple marriage in a year. Some one did see Trentin and said “Little Harry” So then we talked about Harry Potter. And I might have to take out the picture of our house, because everyone thinks we’re millionaires. There’s nothing close to a suburb here.
Matigas ang ulo (hard headed)-So we taught a man yesterday about the Word of Wisdom. He’s a way old man, and he’s been pretty hard headed. He’s way funny though. He growls a lot when we say something he doesn’t like, but you can get a laugh out of him when you try. We told him that fruits were good for the body, and then he asked me “Are all fruits good?” So I was hesitant to answer, because it’s risky when he asks questions using “always” or “never,” but I said yes. Then he asked me about the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eve. I had no idea what to tell him, so in my best Tagalog I told him “Kung hahanapin po ninyo ang ipinagbawal ng prutas, huwag ninyong kainin” Which basically means, “Well Tatay (father), If you find a forbidden fruit, don’t eat it.”He got a laugh out of it.
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