General Conference

Monday, October 8, 2018

Good Morning All!

So happy to be able to write y'all. My thoughts and prayers have been with Nana and the recent surgery. Love you.

This week was a lot of work, a little sleep, and countless blessings. I am so thankful for a loving God who is willing and eager to bless us. One highlight from this last week was a lesson we had last Wednesday. We have been teaching a group of Harding students, and a little over a week ago we invited each of them to bring a friend to our next lesson. They all did! In total we had a lesson with 9 students. Each of them came from entirely different family and social backgrounds, however their combined faith in Christ really blew me away. They all want to follow Christ in the best way they know. We taught the plan of salvation, but due to the numerous questions we covered only our pre mortal life. It was a great discussion!

We also were able to watch general conference with a family of 7 that we are teaching! They loved it. The mother of the family and her 11 year old daughter attended the women's session and told us how special the talk given by the prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, was. I too enjoyed the talks and found a lot of wisdom and council in the themes I felt and saw in the conference.

Today we woke up at 4 am and did some grocery shopping before heading to Jacksonville! It was fun to be at Wal-Mart so early again! There was no one there! We have this month's zone pday today and it is going to be great! This last transfer we got 4 additional missionaries in the zone! One of the companionships is a senior couple that are serving on the little rock air force base! They are a delightful couple that really are excited to do the work here.

My prayers are going out to each of you and I look forward to hearing more from y'all about how life is and the wonderful blessings you have received. Talk to you soon.

Love,

Elder C.R. Anderson


- Wal-Mart at 4 am

- A Christian pizza buffet. They let people write scriptures and inspirational quotes on the wall. I chose a favorite of mine :) 3 Nephi 5:13

Fall is my favorite

Monday, October 1, 2018

Hello!

Fall really is my favorite. The heat is on its way out the back door and that's good news! It's been absolutely delightful most of the week. This next week should be pretty warm, but after that it should be over.

I've enjoyed hearing from each of you and love receiving the emails and pictures! Y'all look happy and healthy. This week was a long one full of so many events. We felt like it flew by. Most of the pictures are from today! However some are from earlier events in the week.

One miracle and cool story is that we have been regularly teaching a group of 4 college students. Last Wednesday we had a meeting with them and invited them all to bring a friend! (That's how most of them got there in the first place). They all said they would and as of now we have 8 college students coming to a lesson on Wednesday! They said that they would continue to invite friends. Should be a great night! We will have some members of the ward there as well, as we teach about the plan of salvation. We are excited.

Love y'all so so much! Hope you enjoy the pictures, and I will talk to y'all shortly.

Elder C.R Anderson

We are helping someone build a house. I've learned lots!
Watermelon from a members garden
Our apartment decorated! Thanks mom

Art alley (cool city art project down town)

On the road!

Monday, September 24, 2018

Hello :)

We spent more than 12 hours on the road this week! 8 of those were a day trip to Memphis. We were meeting in Bartlett Tennessee. We went there for a mission leadership council. The stake center that we met in is right behind the temple that is being completely renovated.

Other than that I spent time in various cities throughout eastern Arkansas and western Tennessee. This cities include Searcy, Memphis, Bartlett, Forrest city, lonoke, Beebe, Cabot, and little rock! Map those out and you'll see that we were running around quite a bit!

We got the transfer news this last weekend and both elder Webb and I will be spending another 6 weeks in Searcy! At the end of this transfer, I will have been in Searcy for 7 and 1/2 months. It is so exciting!

Elder Webb and I are working our hardest and the Lord is making miracles happen in our area. It is wonderful.

Fun story for this week! We got pulled over... no worries though we weren't the ones driving. We were in the back seat of a members car in Beebe. The mom was driving in the middle of the road on a country road, when she should have been on the right. So he let her off with a warning. It was pretty cool because as he was about to leave we had a talk with him about what we are doing as missionaries and we shared a copy of the Book of Mormon with him, promising that the message contained inside could change the life of him and his family.

We had the opportunity of meeting with Tad R. Callister, the Sunday School General President. He gave an outstanding lesson to us and about 70 other missionaries on the plan of salvation. Great time spent with him.

We also made it to another devotional that he did later that evening for the general public. We traveled there (little rock) with our elders quorum President and one of the people we are teaching.

Other than that it has been a lot of rain! This last Sunday we were waiting for members to arrive at church. We grabbed umbrellas and helped people from their cars to the church. Because of the nearly horizontal rain, we got soaked. But we were happy to help.

The work is such a pleasure to be a part of. I am amazed daily because of the trust that God has given me and my fellow missionaries. Love y'all and hope to hear good things are happening with each of you!

Love,

Elder C.R Anderson

Pictures:
- Rain over the river
- Pulled over
- In front of Memphis temple
- Bass pro shop pyramid
- Everyone was a little tired

Side Preparation day!

Monday, September 17, 2018

Hello family!

Today we spent the day in Jacksonville for a preparation day with all of the missionaries on the Arkansas side of the mission.

We had to get up super early to get all of our shopping and cleaning done for the day. We woke up at 4:30 and went to Wal-Mart. It's creepy to be there super early because no one else is there, no music is playing, and the shelves are completely full because no one else had gone shopping yet. Well, except on guy. We were going to get some bread, and this one man had cleared out every single type of sliced bread. The bread was stacked so high in his cart it was almost taller than him. Weird but cool. I guess bread freezes well. After our shopping we got a ride to Jacksonville with a member of our congregation who commutes to work in little rock every day. He's a back surgeon there.

Some of the activities we did today include frisbee golf, croquet, kickball, and other fun activities! The weather was definitely in the upper 90s and really humid. Everyone was super sweaty and gross. But it's okay because we were all sweaty together.

This last week was full of miracles. I will focus on one! We were able to meet and teach a family this last week. The father had gone to many churches in the past but never felt that welcome in any of them. He preferred to watch sermons on YouTube on Sunday. One Sunday he was watching a sermon (pretty sure general conference) when an add came on the screen for a free copy of the bible. He filled out his information and also said he would be interested in hearing a message about Jesus Christ when the missionaries came to deliver his bible. We were able to go and deliver the Bible and we talked with them about the gospel contained in it. We invited them (and their family of 7) to read from it as well as the book of Mormon, to pray every day, and to come to church. We took them on a tour of our building a few days later and they decided that they want to be baptized. They also came to church this Sunday which was so good to be with them there. There are so many other things like this happening and it's definitely the work of the Lord. He is truly hastening His work.

That's about all I've got this week but there will be more to come. This Saturday I will find out if I will stay in Searcy any longer! Most likely I will, but I hope I do!

Love Y'all so much!

Elder C.R. Anderson

1. Elder Giles and I (he was my first companion)
2. Playing croquet (I think that's how you spell it)
3. Wal-Mart @ 5 am.