Game Night!

Monday, June 17, 2019

We had a really cool experience this last week in the Danville Branch. Many of the people we are teaching right now are youth or young adults. In the hopes of getting them to better know the youth of the church we organized a board game night af the church on Friday!

The game night went really well and we had 6 different people we were teaching come. They all commented that they had a good time and we definitely enjoyed being there with them. At the end of the game night we all went into the chapel where Elder Lopez and I shared a message with them. We based that message of a few verses found in Mathew 22 which say:

35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

The main point of our message was that the gospel of Jesus Christ can all be related back to a love for God and fellow man. We bore testimony of the truth of these words and that we could all make it a point to love and serve those around us. We all committed to serve someone the following day, then to come to church on Sunday where we would all share our experiences with each other.

Asher, James, and Brianna all came to church and we loved having them there. We could tell that there was more light and joy in their lives because of the service that they had rendered and being in such a sacred service as sacrament meeting.

I also know that serving others can bring a light and joy to our lives that cannot be found any other way. As we serve we will better come to know our Savior, Jesus Christ, and His gospel.

I would invite each of you to look for one simple way to serve someone this week! You will see added light and joy in your life as you do.

Elder C.R. Anderson

Cool drawing
Jenga tower
Convertible ride

Flood waters are gone!

Monday, June 10, 2019

Hola!

The flood waters have receded a lot. At their highest they were at around 48ft above normal. They have cropped back down about 20 ft and are continuing. It was a really cool experience to be a part of such a historic event in this part of Arkansas.thus opportunity led to MANY opportunities to share the gospel truth, even if it was just through a smile or good act.

While doing service for the sandbagging we met a really nice family. They were going to take some of the sand bags to put at their house. We offered to follow them over and help unload. We helped them and we ended up talking about soccer, families, and the gospel. We explained briefly the importance of prayer and then continued to invite them to learn more. They agreed and we set a time for later in the week.

We had the lesson with them and it was phenomenal. The spirit was very present and we could feel him guiding our words. The family was very attentive and "all in." Because of that they were able to learn by the spirit as well. After teaching our relationship with Heavenly Father and teaching about prayer and how to pray, we aided each of the parents and oldest daughter in saying a prayer. They were each so excited. Their prayers were sincere and beautiful. In the mothers prayer she thanked God for sending the us to them and she prayed that we would be available and have time to come back and teach more of His gospel. They are a wonderful family and we have a few appointments already in place for this week! Thank you for all of your support and prayers in our behalf. We really felt that it was because of the prayers of others that this was able to happen.

Love you all so much!

Elder C.R. Anderson

Phone stand
My companion taking pictures of me while planning
Valeadas
Comp picture
Walking down the road to one of the people we are teaching
My favorite piece of art
There was a racoon in the attic of our church. We thought it was a person though so we went to investigate. Raccoons are scary too though!

Arkansas Flood 2019

Monday, June 3, 2019

Hello All,

Due to the flood Elder Anderson was not able to get a wifi connection to send this out to everyone like he normally does and asked me to pass it on through my group email.  He is safe and sound working hard to help the people of Arkansas.

From Elder Anderson:

This has been the highest flood in recorded history! It has been such a wonderful experience to be a part of something like this.

The coolest part of this week was seeing all of the community come together for a common cause. We all laughed, talked, and filled sand bags together for hours on end. A large majority of the people there were from local church congregations. Everyone's faith was on fire as we served one another.

We spent the large chunk of last week in different cities along the Arkansas river helping fill and place walls of sandbags. I have never seen so many sand bags in my life! Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we were in dardanelle. Wednesday we were in Conway. Thursday I was in Memphis (for a meeting). Friday we were in north little rock. And Saturday and Sunday we finished it off in Dardanelle again!

I am safe and dry and happy to be serving in Arkansas! Love you all so much

Elder C.R. Anderson

Temporary barrier (Dardanelle)
Broken a.c.(Dardanelle)
Rising waters (Dardanelle)
Sand bagging buddies (Dardanelle)
Flooded neighborhood (north little rock)
reparing broken sandbag walls (north little rock)
Machine sand bags (north little rock)
Sleeping arrangements (Conway)
Fire station bagging (Conway)
Emergency kit (Dardanelle)

High Waters!

Monday, May 27, 2019

Hello Everyone! The waters are rising here in Dardanelle. Both the baptismal font and the river have been pretty full this week! Both have made for an exciting time.

Baptism of Johann - Johanns baptism went really well. It is amazing the see the changes in someone as the gospel takes root in their life. Johann has changed so much in the last month's that I have known him. I know that only through Jesus Christ is any goof change made in our lives. The biggest one I have seen in Johann is his change from looking inward to looking outward. He has started to see the people around them and serve them in simple, meaningful ways. He has been drawn to do more family history work and to prepare names for his ancestors in the temple! It is an exciting time for both him and his family.

Flooding of Dardanelle - I'm sure many of you have heard of the rain storms and high waters in Oklahoma. Well it just so happens to be that Oklahoma is just upstream from us! All that water is headed our way. The water has risen about 40 feet and it is supposed to crest somewhere around 45 feet. If that's the case some houses and properties will be flooded here in Dardanelle. They expect the damage to be minimal but it has sent the whole city into a frenzy! This is the most exciting thing that has happened in Dardanelle for a long time! It was super cool to see the community come together on Sunday afternoon to prepare sand bags. There were hundreds of volunteers there and we made around 60,000 sand bags! That's a lot of sand. I commented to one of the people that I met there that "this is one of the best Sunday church services I have been to." The unity and love there was exciting. The energy was contagious. There were more than 7 church groups represented there as well as many families and individuals. Great time to be a Christian! Great time to be a good person.

Enjoy the pictures from this week! There are quite a few!

Love you all so much

Elder C.R. Anderson

Ariel shots taken by local police department
Sand bags! (See if you can spot me in some of the photos)
Down by the river just north of town
River at the city park
Park again (notice the basketball hoops)
Spoon selfie with Johann
Helping someone we met tear out the floor of a trailer
Massive 3 meat burger
Johanns baptism

Woo pig

Monday, May 20, 2019

I love this place. I love Arkansas so much. People ask me where I'm from, and I explain the exciting adventures of my parents moving from Colorado to Utah, but then I always am sure to explain that although I have lived in both of those places, Arkansas feels like home to me now.

I've thought about why I love it so much recently and came to the conclusion that it is not because of the humidity, trees, or the bugs bigger than my savings account. It is rather that I have genuinely come to love the people here. I am invested in the welfare of their souls. As I work day to day, my heart is full of joy and gratitude.

No need to worry though mom, I will still come home. I just want you to know that it will sure be hard to leave!

Johann is going to be baptised this Wednesday. We are so excited. He is one of the many brothers and sisters here that I have taken special interest in. He is truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ and wants that same opportunity for his family, living and dead. Over the past 40 or so years of his life he has been heavily involved in family history work. We checked his account on family search and he has over 7,000 names that are ready to be taken to the temple. We are so thrilled.

Enjoy the fun pictures this week!

Elder C.R. Anderson

Thai food (they are from Lao)
Sister nanthalansy
Studying in the Reeve home (almost 1.5 hours from where we live)
Companion
Other companion
Making sure my mirrors work
Driving over the mountain
Our fridge broke... We get to clean out some stuff though! A lot of it has been there for a long time