Hey all! I have to make it up to you and write a good email! Last weeks was really short.
So here I am in Little Rock, Arkansas! It's nothing like I expected but everything I expected at the same time.
I am serving in North Little Rock Spanish speaking. Its such a diverse place. The people, houses, scenery are all different and beautiful. We are both a biking and car mission. We have a car because all of the Spanish speaking members and investigators are so spread out. However we are required to do a certain number of full bike days each month. We spend about half our time on bikes and half in a car. Our area covers a large part of the city. In our area we are responsible for all Spanish speakers above the Arkansas River as well as a good part of the area below it as well. Like I said before there are all kinds of different people and places. We have spent time in affluent neighborhoods as well as the trailers and shacks. We have a wide variety of people we talk to and teach as well.
Grandma Bertha (Abuelita Bertha) is an older lady who lives in shackleford trailers with her husband. They only speak Spanish. She doesn't do much because of health concerns but is so sweet. She and her husband live a very humble lifestyle but are so kind to the missionaries. We were walking by her trailer last Friday on our way to visit someone who lives farther down from her when we heard someone clap and yell "ven aqui/come here!" We looked over and saw Grandma Bertha waiting on her porch. She said she was hoping we would come by and was waiting on her porch. We went in and shared a short message and scripture and talked with her. Being sweet she offered water right before we left. We accepted and she told us to take a seat. We didn't know what she was doing. She walked over to the kitchen and started pulling out her blender and other odd and mysterious fruits. We don't know what went into the "Juice" she gave us but she insisted and we had more than enough. It was so sweet because she said shed been saving the fruit all week to give to us.
All the people here are like Grandma Bertha. They are so kind and welcoming in the Spanish community. And even though we may not know them, as soon as they realize that we speak Spanish they are so much more open and receptive to our message. Language is such an important aspect of communicating, but I've learned that even more important than that is that we show how we love someone through how we act. Language may be a hard barrier to overcome, but showing genuine interest and love to someone will always open them up.
We were so excited to have the baptism of Jose Torres yesterday after church. He is an investigator that has been working with the missionaries for a long time. Watching him take the steps to be baptized was amazing. It was such a great example of faith and love for our Savior. In the same service another brother was getting baptized named Kendal. It was an interesting baptismal service because half the people there only spoke English, half only spoke Spanish. And then there were the missionaries! My companion and I translated the whole service either from English to Spanish or the other way around. However when I think the spirit was most present was right after the two brothers were baptized and we had the opportunity to sing "I am a child of God/Soy un hijo de Dios." Each member sang the song with conviction and power. We were worried how it would go because there would be people singing in both languages. When we were singing the two languages seemed to flow together. No longer was it about what was being said, but rather the feelings each person had while singing. After the song it was evident that we are all children of a loving heavenly father. Language, ethnicity, origin, religion; These mean nothing when we realize that we are all children of God. We are all the same in His eyes. He loves us all equally and perfectly. How beautiful it is when we can love our "neighbor" the same way. Once we put aside the differences, so much is possible.
We had Guillermo at the baptism as well! He is an investigator learning about the gospel and is loving it. He has a baptismal date set for the 15th of October! We are so excited for him because he is continuing to grow and come closer to Jesus. He really enjoyed seeing a baptism and helped him become even more excited about his own.
So that's a little window into whats been happening in my life! I love this work.
I know that this gospel has the ability to bless everyone. Jesus loves you!
Sé que este evangelio tiene la abilidad a bendicir cada persona. Jesus te ama!
Elder Anderson
PS - Our mission now uses Facebook! We have been authorized to use it to help the work advance. I disabled my old account, so its still there but just isnt active anymore, and I created a new one! I am on facebook just as my name 'Colton Anderson'. Go add me as a friend! I would love for all of you to be my friend but know that facebook is only going to be used as a tool to help the work as a missionary. I cant talk to anyone on it outside of my mission, but I will be posting pictures and cool experiences that I have on there! Ill still be writing these emails as well but I would love to see all of you on facebook!
