´Hello Everyone.

Well I dont have much time today because today isnt p'day because yesturday was our p day and a christmas confrence. So we traveled all day yesturday. We also had a really neat party for the branch here. We sang songs and played games with presents. I will talk more next week because we will have time to write. IN the last week and a half, we had had a baptism, storm, killed a rat, I burned my tie for my 6 months, we had 8 investigators in church and are expectiong much more this week., I have been helping to teach the branch music with some Married Missionaries from Salt Lake, And lifting tons of weights and jump roping. Ill go into detail the next time and send tons of pictures. I love you all and look forward to calling my beloved family for the first time. I love you and wish the best.

Spudems

Merry Christmas from Spud

Click here for a holiday greeting from Spencer!

Theres another storm

Hello Everyone! Everything here is awesome. I love being a missionary. Its still hot here everyday but in the winter it is cool. I was actually cold with my fan on the other night. IN the winter there is a nice wind. It really cools us down. The people here wear sweaters and warm closes. I always tell them this is nothing. ONce you have lived in Rexburg Idaho thats when you know what cold is. Well The people here are going crazy for the Strorm Olga. The people here love to talk about stuff like this. But they always over exaggerate everything. But i love hearing what they have to say. SO yesterday it rained a ton and today it is raining a little. But i guess this is the beginning of the storm. Ill make sure to keep my umbrella with me. Transfers are today but ill be staying here for awile. It look like 6 months Ill be here or 4 tranfers. So Ill think ill leave here this next tranfer or the 23 of January. I love Nizao its awesome. We have had lots of sucess with the people here I love them. Leo will be baptized this saturday. He is super excited to be baptized. He loves the gospel. His life has been changed dramatically. He is the most definently changed person i have seen in my mission. He loves the Book of Mormon and reads it everyday in his work being a security guard. I have a deep loev for him. He is my buddy adn friend. Im so glad for his choice. He knows so much about the gospel adn he applys it in his life. We actually talked with his son when he cut our hair for haircuts. He is awesome and had lots of questions. I hope he can have the same change. Gustabo came to church for the first time and loved it. It took his forever to get there and go to the service. He came to an activity, but didnt come to church because some ladies were talking and being irreverant the entire time while he was watching movies in an open house. But he is super cool and I think heel be a great leader in the church. He knows we are true messangers of Jesus Christ and always prays for us in his prayers. His wife is going to come back for the United States this week and i think she will help him to accept the gospel. Macae is an awesome young man who loves teh book of mormon. He loves us and gave us a ton of food the last visit. He is very sincere and Promises and fulfills his commitments. He is very special. I am very excited for him. We are also teaching a lady named Celia and she comes to church every sunday. She is currently build a house to live in because she is going to separate from her husband. We are also having sucess with the less actives and have gotten to back to church. I love my mission so much. Im trying really hard. I hope you all have a great week. Take it easy.

Elder Spudman

Hey.

Hey Everyone. How is life? Im so glad to be a missionary here in Nizao. Its awesome. This week we worked super hard and worked a lot with less actives. It really is sad that almost all all of them dont go to church because backbiting and talking among the members. I forgot the word in English but in spanish it is chisme. Sorry. That was weird. I have actually forgotton much of english because i have noone to talk to in english. Leo bore his testimony again in sacrament meeting and is feeling great for his baptism next week. He is awesome and loves the church and the Book of Mormon. he spoke a lot on the peace and joy he feels in the church. We also had a lady drop here baptismal date because she wants to wait for her husband. But she is cool and We are going to try and teach her husband the best we can. But he drinks and smokes a ton and has also beat her a couple times. We also learned a lot about boat building from one of our investigators witha baptismal date. His name is Daniel. He also is going to stop his coffee drinking after we taught the word of wisdom. I dont have a lot of time this week but Ill e mail you more next week. Sorry. I love you all and pray for all of you each day and night. Ill also send some sweet pictures. WOOOHOOO.

Elder Anderson

The DR is pretty Sweet

Hello Everyone, How was your Thanksgiving. Their wasnt much of a Thanksgiving here in the DR because they dont have one. I´m sure it was just awesome and the food was great. Even though I wasnt there to give my thanks this Thanksgiving, I want to say thank you for all the support I have gotten in my mission. I know that I am loved and that I feel your prayers everyday. I pray always for you and I hope you have a great holidays, Especially with Christmas coming up. Im so thankful for my family, friends, my Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ. Those are the people who I love the most. They are my life. Again I love you all and I know the DR is the mission for me. Im blessed more than I know. I´ve learned so much in my mission. It is such a great experiance. I wish you all could be here. Well All is well here in Nizao. The Branch is awesome and I love the Presidency and the members. I had a little bit of ¨The Gripey¨ as they call it here. But it is pretty much a little cold. I only had it for 4 days. But Im pretty much well now. I got it from my companion. He got it from the Hurricane. It was bound to happen since were always together and close. BUt all is good now. Our Investigators are doing great. Leo continues to change me. He has such a strong testimony of the church and the Book of Mormon. The other day he was talking to us and He told us that Captian Moroni was 25 years when he took over command of the Armies of the Nefites. I dont know how many members or missionaries know that but that is amazing. He continues always in teaching us about the Book of Mormon. He always reads and knows so much of it. We have a new investigator his name is Macae, he has talked with the missoionaries before and really whats to know everything. His brother just passed away and also an uncle. He loves what we say adn Friday we are going to awnser all his questions with the Plan of salvation. Raudy and Lidi are a beutiful family with 3 kids. They are always asking questions and love our messages. They know this is the true church but it is hard for them to come to church. He broke his leg 2 years ago and just recently had surguy on it. He can walk more and more everyday and soon he will be able to come to church. Celia is an awesome investigator who always comes to church but is going to seperate from her husband. This is her great challenge. She wasnt to be baptized but needs to comply with the law of Chastity. She was going to do this before we met her because he Drinks a lot. There is a huge problem with drinking in Nizao. Calin is another investigator of Gold. But he needs to be married. He is working on a date for that. But his Mother is really sick so were trying to help him in this tough time. We are really trying to focus on References and Having lessons with Member present. Ive really developed a love for christlike attributes. Ive learning a lot about patience and developing christlike love. Im continually striving to be better adn to be obedient. There are lots of Tigre or nonobedient missionaries here. Im trying to be an example because that is what the Lord asks for.I love you all and thanks for your Emails and love. I hope you have an aweomse week after Thanksgiving and continue to have and give thanks to everyone.

Elder Anderson

THE DR IS AWESOME

Hello everyone. Im so grateful to be a missionary in this great work. I have gained such a strong testimony of the gospel and learn something new each day. OUr investigators are awesome. Leo works as a security guard and he reads the Book of Mormon everyday. He knows tons about the book and also about the gospel. He has such a stong testiomony of the gospel. He actually told us that he was bashing with some other men. He said he wasted them. After laughing a little i told him that bashing is probably not the best way of doing things. Hes so awesome. He has a baptismal date very soon. Also we have a family we are teaching. THey love us us and we sure love them. They are really interested in the church. We watched ¨The Restoration¨ a little while ago and it was amazing the spirit we had. Also we just watched ¨The Testaments¨This was super special. The spirit waqs so strong and they learned a lot about the Book of Mormaon and its origens adn how it compliments the Bible. There were tears and a lot of joy at the end of the movie. Gustabo is also one of our investigators. He loves talking with us and knows that we are true messangers of God. He really knows how to pray. But he said he hasnt had the awnser yet. So we are trying to help him feel adn recive the awnser. He is very special. Calin is another one of our investigators. HE would have already ben baptized but he need to be marrige. So now he is going to get married and is picking a date. His wife is a less active member and we found him as we were finding less actives. Its amazing how the lord works in mysterious ways. But I like it. It just fortifiys my testimony of his power and knowledge. Perla also has a baptismal date. She has a stong testimony and loves the Gospel. She knows so much. But she needs to talk to her husband to make sure its OK. But in the past he has beaten her and she is a little scared. But we know all will be well because the lord will let all who are willing and ready into his kingdom. Daniel is an older man but very wise. He has been reading the Book of Moirmon for years. It was a gift from a neigher many years ago and he has never spoken to the misisonaries before us. But he knows this is the true churchand has agreed to be baptized. He knows the gospel very well adn uses the Book of Mormon in all that he does. We also have tons of other investigators but these are ones with baptismal datesd and who are ready. We recive the confrence talks this week and we have been reading some talks to our investigators. It really does help them to hear the voices of the living prophets. Also in the church news I read all about the Storm. Los >Caobas is in the capital so i dont know much about it. The Capital is Huge. Well yesturday was the Pavaso. It was a huge Basketball Tournament for the Campo zones. There are 4. I didnt play to well and my foot was bugging me but I had tons of fun. We had tons of fun and got to talk to all the other missionaries in the campo. After the Pavaso, The President took us home and on the way we stoped and went on a little hike. It was fun We could see the ocean and the city of Azua. The pavaso was in Azua. There was a big monument celebrating the people of Azua for fighting the Hatians adn keeping them out in the 80´s. Well thats about it. We had district confrence in Bani this week so the members of Nizao went and had a great time in Bani on Sunday. The Mission President is the President because it is a district so I have seen a lot of him latley. We also have interviews on the 29th. Its going to be sweet. Well I love you all and wish you the best of luck. Thanksgiving is going to be a little diffrent but ill figure someing fun out. hahaha. Adios.

Elder Spudman

Hey Everyone. Everything is sweet here in the Dominican Republic. The talk of hte storm is about over adn everything here is back to normal. We havent had water for 3 weeks now. Although we had water for 3 hours on sunday adn a little this morning. So very soon we´ll be getting water. Its hard to live without water. We are really blessed in the states to have water and light always. We have light half the time here. But ived learned to get used to it. Well whats really cool is that were teaching many families adn had great lessons with them. I love watching the Restoration movie with them. We rarely get to but whenm we do ther is always a spirit there. Most of our investigators are progressing. I love teaching the gospel and inviting people to coime to christ. I´ve learned so much her its amazing. Ive had great experiances and others no. But I always think of my savior and what he would do adn what he was like. Latley i have been studing him. Its amazing how much we can learn. These past couple weeks ive been easting a little on the mexican side. I have eaten sme picante hot sauce that elder gonzalez has made. WEEEEHOOO It is hot. Dominicans dont like spicy food at all so that was an eye opener for them. We have one investigator that lives a litle of in the country adn above a field on a hilkl. He has a huge house adn the most beautiful view of the ocean. Im going to take some pictures adn share this awesopme experiance with ya´ll. Well all is fine and Im still healthy and the same. I love you all and pray everynight for every single one of you.

Elder Anderson

Hello

Hey everyone. I´m so thankful for your emails. I love them. Well the DR is pretty much dry now. A couple of hte missioaries home were totaled but ours just had a little water. We have been without water for a week now. So we shower and get water from the well under the chapel. We are taking bucket showers. Its actually fun. Except of the walk. We had zone confrence yesturday and it was awesome. I directed the music. The President and i are getting closer and closer here. Because i have the most time in nizao. Well in ZC we learned about the importance of using the Book of Mormon in our teaching more. It is the keystone and we need to use it. The world has the bible and so we need to share with them the restored truths. Im learning a lot about the gospel and gaining a stonger testimony of our church. Ive heard lots of diffrent religions here adn all are well false. Im doing very well in spanish. It really is a gift from God. I know a lot and its all because of hime. Through my study and prayer adn Gods divine intervention we can do all things. Ive learned through sincire prayed god wioll give us our desires, if it is the will of god. We are really trying to get our investigators to do that and pray with faith. Im now living with 3 lations. 2 Dominicans and a mexican. Elder Gonzalez is mexican and has one month more than me in his mission. But he has been in te field more because he knows the language. It is very hard living with them and we butt heads a lot. But im praying for patience. We have worked diffrently in our passeds adn now need to both change. But for the weather, everything is about the same. Its dry and we still have showers but it does rain a lot in Nizao. Some of the roads are damaged but life goes on. The Dominicans have leared to deal with tough times. I love the people here and we are having lots of sucess here. Elder Macy and I worked hard here adn know we are seeing the Benefits. We have 4 baptismal dates in the upcoming weeks adn they are awesome. Im so thankful for the opportunity to serve the lord. Im learning so much. My testimony has been strenthed so much. I love you all and look forward to your letters next week. I hope you all have a fun week. I love you.

Elder Spud

WOW

Well this has been a crazy week. Well we had a huge storm. NOEL. Lets just say it rained for 3 days straight and we didnt have light for three days. Nizao held up pretty well but Don Gregorio got hit bad. Lets just say a new river the size of my hips appeared out of nowhere. During the Hurricane we were asked to help the people so we wnet around all of Nizao and Don Gregorio asking if people needed help. So these last days we havent taught a lot but have had lots of service. OUr house had water in it but just from the widows. The floor was wet but i woulodnt say it was flooded. OUr house does ned to be cleaned though. It stimks a little like mold. BUt None of the members were hit hard so thats good, or our investigators. One man was stuck in the river by Don Gregorio for 15 hours in a tree before somepeople got in a boat and saved him. The river was huge about 4 times as big as usual. What weas messed up is people were running around trying to save theirs house buit then all the people of Nizao were coming with tons of beer and alcohol tothe river, the Dangerous RIVER. they are always drinking here even in a crisis. Well I need to tell you I MET VLADMIR GUERRERO. I got a picture with him and talked to him. I got a picture and every thing. We was just chilling in the road. I also saw his brother wilton . Wilton also played in the big leagues. I also saw Juan Uribe another Baseball player in his huge SUV. Vladmir has a nice whiote range rover. Well I have a new companion he is From Mexico and and his name is Elder Gonzalez. Well I need to go ill update later.

Elder Andersonell this has been A

The DR is Sweet

Well things are good here we have lots of great investigators and baptismal dates. We are really slowing down though. Elder Macy is leaving on Monday and will be done with his mission. He doesnt want to do as much stuff adn is sleeping in and not himselve. But i keep up beat and try my best. My next companion and I are going to take off and work super hard. Transfers are Tuesday and i dont know if im leaving or not. Im still in my first area but we have tonsd of investigators adn i dont think hell move me. He usually puts greenies in their first area for 6 months. So i hope i can stay. I love my area and the people here. Especially our investigators, their awesome and we are also really good friends with the members. Our Zone will be really diffrent at transfers. Almost ´half of the zone is leaving and we are getting a new zone leader. I love the Dominican Elders im living with. They are cool adn super funny. But sometimes a little too much. But thats just being dominicans. I hope that i can get a dominican companio. That would be sweet. All dominicans are crazy. I found that out the first weeek in the field. Ive seen the weirdest and strangest things and stuff in the world. But thats why I love this place. It fits me perfect. ahhaha. Well Im realizing lots of stuff in my mission and that i can be better in all things. Ive really found the power of prayer and my testimony has never been stonger. My spanish is getting way better and i love to speak it. Its easier to understand and speak now. My goal is to speak perfect spanish by the time i leave. Its more like a wish but im really going to work hard to speak very well. Well the other day we took pictures of vladmirs house, his guards with shotguns let us in. It was tight. His house is huge. He got home last week and we see him driving his White Escalade. But i guess he dosnt like to talk to outsiders of his family and freidships. I probably wouldnt either. I also found out that Miguel Tejada lives in Bani. Thats where im writing from. Bani is My Zone. Well thats about it. I love you all and wish you the best.

Spud

Hello

Well today was aweome. We got to attend the temple. It was amazing. I loved how peaceful it was. I dont think youll ever understand how loud it is here. Its always super loud. And there are no laws for music and the loudness. We also went to Wendy´s today. It was awesome. I had a >FROSTY and it was amazing. Im in the capital now in a huge plaza. It is huge adn super loud. There are people everywhere. Well we are having sucess here and a lot of it. We had an investigator in church for the first time last week and he got up and bore his testimony. I was scared out of my mind when he went up there. But it was awesome. Even though he wove his hands around a lot and said "Grasias al Dios" it was awesome. HE testified of the the peace we have brought to him. He then said he is in our family now adn wont ever miss church. He was also reading the scriptures all through church. We also have another man named Gustabo the other was Leo who bore his testimony. Gustabo loves the church adn loves the peace and happiness the gospel gives him. He told one of his friends visiting how much peace he feels when were there and to let us in. We have an appointment in 2 dsays . Its so amazing how hte lord works. He is awesome and really blesses us in ways we dont know. Well thats pretty much it. I love you all and wish you good luck in life. My health is good. I am the same at 165 lds and had a really low pulse and blood pressure. I do sit ups almost every day, and run up a hill we live on and we also have weights made out of cement. Ill send pictures later. Well talkto ya next week.

Spud

Hey Everyone, Im doing great here in my mission. Ive had some great experiances this week. General Confrence was awesome. We had it in the stake center in Bani. 6 american elders watched it in english in a little room. I love every single talk. they were amazing. We had 2 investigators there. One is going to be baptised on the 20th. Last night we also invitee a young man to be baptized on the 27th. The work is pretty good. We have families and men were talking to. They are awesome. Its so cool being a missionary, its a great opportunity to get to preach the gospel and serve the lord. Today im in San Cristobal and am visting the families of elder macy that he taught. So i dont have much time. But I want you all to know i love you and am working hard. I hope Drew can fit in living back in our society. It would be hard for me too. I love ya and hope all goes well.

Love,

Spencer

Hey Everyone

Hey Everyone, Im so glad to here from you. Im also excited for Drew to come home. Im glad he is such an awsome bro. Well things are going great here, we are teaching families and men. Which is great. Im so grateful for the lord and all that he does for us. He has blessed Elder Macy and I tons. Pray has also been a great experiance. Ive really grown close to my father in heaven through prayers and can testify that through are faith adn acting upon it in coming down to prayer. God will do miricles. Through us i dont know but i know things get done. Thats all i can askl for. The other day I was amazed at my spanish. I realized how far i have come. I can understand almost every thing and can now in my mind create sentences and not just remember words and phrases. More and more I am talking more in lessons. Its alot funner when you can understand a little and speak to them. Elder Macy and I went on some splits with some men this last week. It was sweet but a little scary. I was with the 1st counselor of the branch and of course he couldnt speak english. It was really fun and rewarding. I was surprised by my spanish adn how to talk to less actives. We went to the houses of less actives and talked with them a little. Most cant go and havent gone because work on sunday. It is sad but that is also our job to. to perfect the saints and bring them back. We also get more done if i go and do stuff while elder macy does stuff. It is reall efficient and we want to do it more often. This is my last tranfer with Elder Macy so hes starting to think about home. But Im trying to think about my upcoming mission. The Dominicans are awesome adn we have tons of fun together. We always joke around. It is awesome. We are teaching eachother our diffrent languages. Its awesome. I love the people here. Its weird though because i havent been with this many dark people in my life. Its hard to think that their are white people in the world. But everyonce and a while weel so a blanco or a whiter dominican. They have lots fo spanish blood in them. BUt i love them and they really are a beautiful people. They are very wicked though and its hard to work here. But we find the people who are ready. And God is who im thanking for them. The work is great and im trying my hardest. I hope all is well.

Spencer

Howdy

Hey Everyone, Im having an amazing time here in the Dominican Republic. Well we had transfers last week and we got 2 dominicans. To put it in short. They´re crazy. They are fun to talk to and are wild. It is really fun in the night when were trying to unwind. THey are working pretty hard though. Elder Macy and I are only working in Nizao and the others are working in Don Gregorio. So Ill probably be here for 6 months in tital. Its a huge amount of time but thats just what our mission president does. He was told to do that I belive. I love that because i can honestly say I lOVE THE PEOPLE here. It is really amazing. I love them and dont really want to leave the area but thats just the mission. So im going to work hard adn leave a spot for the people here in their hearts. We had zone confrence this last week. It was special because we had President Mask the Area authoruty for the carribean come. We was a great speaker and i learned tons. He gave us a huge booster and reminded me of how much better i can be. We can always do something a little more or a little different. I really enjoyed it. It was sad for my companion because this was his last confrence. So he wont see many of hte other missionaries again. ONly 3 were going home from our zones in the campo of field. Campo is pretty much everything other than the capital, Santo domingo. And San Cristobal is considered half half. There are about Half the missionaries are dominicans and the other are americans. This place will soon be just dominicans coming. The work is going very well here. We have many investigators we only had 3 come but we were expecting tons because last week we had 6 and 2 were new this sunday. The one lady is already baptized in her mind. We are going to have to wait a little because she wants to be baptized with her husbanmd but we havent talked with him very much. She is awesoem. We are also teaching other families are they are really taking in the lessons. We also are teaching the husband of a less active member. He is super smart and is loving our message. We told us that every thing was clear and made sense when we talked and that we did it way better than other religions. He really respects us. He is super smart and loves teh bible. He has prayed and told us last night he knows the church is true and Jospeh Smith was a profet. We were so pumped last night when we talked with him. His wife also said she would go to church again if he started to attended. I really know the lord works in mysterious ways and that we will be baptized. I see him as a stake President and as being a great leader in the church. I m so thankful for my heavenly father and for his blessings he gives me. Im thankful for this grand opprortunity to serve him and also to help others find out the truth adn remember that this is the true church. It is an exciting work and im eating it up. So are our investigators. I love all of you and wish you the best luck. I know that God will bless you for following him. Ive seen the changes in so many people. There is such a diffrence in the amount of love and happiness these families have. I love ya again.

Elder Spencer William Anderson

Hello Everyone.

Today was transfers but im not leaving. Ill probably be here for 6 months though. Which is a long time. Im really enjoying Nizao. It stinks because 2 of the other elders left. But we are getting to dominicans. One will be a trainer and the other one just out of the CCM. I´ll really be forced to speak spanish all the time. But i think it will be awesome. All the dominicans are crazy so ill know i will have a great time. Well We are having great sucess here now. Im so grateful for the lord and I know that he helped us out. We were in a tough situation and now we will have much sucess. We have found many families that are ready. We also had 6 investigators at church. But we should have had more. We are also seeing the less actives come back. I love talking with them. They really want to come back but are embarressed. But we are telling them that once they step in the doors for the first time everything will change . We also are telling our investigators about that also. All that came loved it and wished they would have done it sooner. They noticed the spirit there and also felt that this is Gods church on hte earth. Im so thankful for his divine help and now i know not to worry and to work hard. If we do we will be blessed. Im learning a lot of patience here and other christlike attributes. Christ is the perfect example. I dont have too many storys other than we found a moth the size of our hard in our house. ahaha. At least it wasnt a huge araña= Spider. Well i hope you have an awesome time this week. I hope you can check out my blog. My family has worked real hard on it. and I am thankful..

Adíos

Elder Spud

Pictures from Spencer

YOYOYO

Hey Everyone,

Im doing great here in the Dominican Republic. We are having a lot of sucess in the small town of Guale. We went around with a lady to pretty much the entire town and told them who we were. Then we invited them to come the next wendsday to her house. Well tomorrow is wendsday and we are expecting a multitude of people. SO We will try a savoir on the mount approch and teach a whole bunch of people in a little park. So we are very excited for that. We have so good investigators adn are really close to having baptismal dates for them. Im really excited and they are to. We have one lady who is in love with the gospel and is already acting and calling herself a member. She is awesome and her husband is really excited and they are super pumped about living together forever. Im really learing the gospel and the language here. The language is coming slowly but steadily and the gospel is just out pouring, I have gain such a strong testimony of this church their is no doubt in my mind. I have had the spirit whisper to me too many times to deny it. It is one of hte best feelings you could ever have. I also the the joy the church brings and how much better off we are knowing hte things we do. But this is the hard part helping people change their ways and their realigion. All we can do is invite them but they have to search for the truth they need to read the scriptures escpecially the book of mormon and also to pray and ask if the church of jesus christ of latter day saints is the same church that has been restored through Joseph Smith. Its so awesome to know that we have the same church that christ establised and also the prophets before himj. It is such a great blessing. I challenge all of you to share this with some one you love or one of your neighboirs. Well this week i went on an companion exchange with Elder Peguero. He is our district leader and is a native Dominican. We nows only a couple phrases in english so it was pretty much all spanish for 2 days. But it was really awesome and a huge learning experiance. We have also started a prech my gospel class for all the leaders here in Nizao and Don Gregorio. They have a huge love for the book even though it was their first time seeing it. It is scripture. We talked for almost 2 hours and we had to stop it because we had an oppoinment. They were really interested. We focused a lot oin them getting refrences and famililes ready for us. That will help us so much so we can have families that already have friends and a knowledge of the church. Im so thankful for all of you and wish you the best of luck this week. I really miss you all but this will be just a small moment. I know imk supossed to be here and serve here. Im thankful for this great opportunity to give back to my lord and savior. Because he is our savior and he want everyone to come unto him adn his church. But he isnt here and he needs our help to do it. Again I love you all.

Best wishes

Elder Anderson

Hey

Hey Everyone,

This are getting harder and harder here. Its not a physical thing but mental. No one in our city wants to hear the gospel. Weve contacted the whole city and have our good investigators. But our investigators are not progressing and were actually losing some. Its very difficult right now but if we endure we will recive blessings. We have talked to the president in our interviews last week and he said we should stop contacting and work on the less actives. So we have switched our whole techniques and are now working hard in finding the lost sheep. We have found many and almost all of them left the church because either someone offended them in words or they started to work on sundays and gradually left. But we have lots of ones that have been offended. SO we are working on them and also sticking with our investigators. We have also been setting up tons of service with anyone we meet. Also on wendsdays we are having a dominoes night. the people here are always playing dominoes and we had 12 show up for the first week at the church. we think it will grow and grow. We are trying to think of anything to get people interested and getting us known in the community. Our Peloteros or Baseball players are even better then what i thought. One was offered a 1 million dollar signing bonus with the dodgers and the other $600,000 dollors for a signing bonous with the reds. but we dont know if there going to take it. The million dollor guy we probably wont baptize because we think hes doing it because his friends are. and he hasnt shown the fruits of wanting to be baptized. we really look for those in our investigators. we want members for life not like all the town of nizao who we baptized and have fallen away. But we have good news. When we were at the hospital visitnig the sick a lady that showd us around invited us to here house in a far away city but still in our area. Missionaries have really never been there. Its name is Pizzarte but she lives on the outskirts in in a town called Guale. She and here family were really into the lessons and were begging us to come back. It was amazing. So tommorow were going to go their all day and shes going to cook us dinner. and then bring us to all her friends. We prayed about it and we feel really good about this really far away city. It costs a lot of money to get their adn takes a long time to get there but we really are feeling that thats were we should be working. These people are receptive. If all goes well tommorow we will probably go their 3 times a week. We will sacrifice our little money we have but these are the only people showing fruits. So I love you all and hope that you all will have great weeks. Your all examples to me.

Elder Spud Anderson

Hey Everyone,
Im doing great here in the Dominican Republic. This is such a sweet country. Well some new news i have is There will be no more maids in hte dominican republic. Our contract ends at the end of this month. The country passed a bill that says we have to pay insurance and benefits. So the church wont spend that much money. So it looks like ill have to be just like every other missionary. We usually each rice for lunch but they have so many differant things we can do. So it never gets old. I actually love it. Good thing i was pretty much born on rice in our family so i love it. For dinner we stop in little stores on the road called colmados and we eat breads and juices. Its awesome. This week elder Macy and I went and visited people in the hospital. It was way fun. We also talked to the director if we could do service in hte hospital every friday. It will be an awesome experiance. This month is their patrons day in the DR. so all they do is drink beer and alcohol all day. Literally. Even before this holiday I could see little kids getting beer for their parents and kids drinking. We also had an investigator leave the city because she was beat. She was really progressing too. Satan has got a huge hold upon this people, and i thinkj thealcohol is the main ingedient. They cant feel hte spirit when their under the influance. I have seen stuff here I never want to be apart of. We also had an investigator pass away on sunday. She died of cancer, she had been suffering for a long time but didnt have the money to pay for the help. Before she died she or her daughters called for us. We were at the church at this time and we took some motors over to her house. We put our hands on her head and gave her a blessing, a member gave the blessing and talked a lot about her next life. SO we left and then found out a couple hours later she passed away. It was said that that had to happen so maybe someday she will have the opportunity to get baptized. At her funreal that night we sang hymns and then shared some scriptures. It was sad but i know she is in a better place. I do have great news, we had 5 investigators in sacrament meeting. I was super pumped. We had an old lady 2 women and 2 teenage baseball players. One is going to sign a contract with the Cinncinati Reds. Today our zone went to the beach in nizao only a 10 minute walk. We cooked crab on the beach and al fried plantanos or plantation bananas. We also chopped off the tops of coconuts and drank the water in them. It was super fun we had 12 people there. It was very peaceful and quite. I found a huge star fish which ill bring home and I aslo found a huge head of an electric ell. That i wont bring home but i got a sweet pictures. I hope you all have a great time this week i love ya all.

Spud

My second week

I cant belive i finished my second week. It seems as if the days are going faster and faster. It goes faster when we have people to teach. right now we have tons of investigators. They look very promising. We still have 5 people for baptismal dates but we had to push them back becaue they must go 2 weeks to church in a row and show their desire. Elder Macy and i made this rulñe and really take seriously the people who are to be baptised in the church. we want to baptize leaders adn great strong families. We are in desperate need of priesthood holders here. Well in my time here we walk a lot but our area is very small. i´d say we walk 60% of the time and walk 40%. we ride almost always to Don gregorio. Well i did go through a hurricane here. but we werent hit very hard. Their was so wind and quite a bit of rain. but it looked like something that we could get back in idaho. Ut haiti and athe most south eastern part of the dr was hit pretty good. I also heard it was coming to texas. but im not sure. Well during the night of the hurricane my companion was awaked to the groaning of a cat under his bed. He ran of the bed and left me there alone. We were scared. we tried everytrhing to get it out form under the bed. but it wouldnt budge. Im never going to forget the hissing and growling of that thing. I hit it probably 20 mies so times in the face with a broom but nothing worked. We tried for 2 hours then we went to bet. This happened from 2:30am-4:30am. then we sleeped. But its was still there in the moring. we went to 9:00 church then came back and guess who was still there. yes, the cat. so one of my companions grabbed a spray bottle and shot it. He said cats loath water and cant stand it. so he sprayed it in the face and it took off. so our 2 hours was in vain and the 3 minutes fo finding a bottle and spraying a bottle worked. so let this be a life lesson. cats hate water. A couple days before we went to the beach elder macy and i. It weas so beautiful and quiet. we collected some rocks then went our way. Oh, Guess who lives in don gregorio. VLADMIR GUIERRO. he plays for the angels and is super good. he won the home run derby this year. We can see his super huge house. people said he only lives there for maybe a month in a year. Ill take a picture, but maybe he´ll be here after baseball is done. We had zone confrence on thursday. it was aweomse. It was a good one and he had all good things to say. We wants as a mission 100 baptisms a month, and 1 per comanionship per week. Its is a goal we hope we can meet. Yesturday and last night till toiday i went on a companion exchage with elder calvert, who is a zone leader. It was so cool. We did contacting by walking for 7 hours. it was great experiance. we contacted over 50 people and taught 7 lessons.

Well I hope you all have fun this week. I pray for you all.

Elder Anderson

Hola from Nizao

Hey Everyone. Im officially have 1 week on the field. It is amazing. Ever since i got my mesqito net I have thought about nothing else than the work here. Nizao is a small city that has about 3000 people. We do lots of teaching their also right next and I mean no change in teh houses, is Don Gregorio. We teach a lot their. Most and probably all the people here have been contacted or at least know the church. Wed have about 100 active members in our branch. Plus tons of non active members. We find them all the time. OUr Branch Young Mens President lives in Don Gregoriop and gives us very good and promising refrences. We need refrences to find pepole who really care. So right now we have 5 baptismal dates. One is a 50 yr old lady and the 4 others are 4 baseball players who are staying at a scouts house. The scout is a member and talks to the MLB teams. He is their trainer too. Its sweet. They are your though. One is 15 another is 16 and two are 18 years old. But we have some really interested people who really want to know the gospèl. I can see the miricles the lord gives us with helping the finding of this people. He is amazing. The people here love their alcohol and its really bad. They are drunk all the time. But on the weekends the whole town goes to the center and has a huge drinking party and other bad things. We only live 4 houses from it. So their is constantly noise. The people here litterally blare their music in cars and in their houses and stores. Plus their are millions of little motercycles and scooters. They rev up their engines like no other. So most people live by the strets and we teach outside so every minute we have to stop teaching and wait for them to pass. So its really hard to feel the spirit. But i have faith that all will be well. The girñls are crazy here and always stare at us. in a trans. they think we are gods or something. THey really like white boys. They say stuff to us and hiss at us. Hissing means they want you. Its really strange. But Im fine and I hope you all have a awesome. week. My time is short so ill tell you more next week.

Love

Elder Spud

Hey

Hey Everyone,
 
Well i´m officially in my first area. >Im in the Bani Area or city. But i´´m serving in a little city called Nizao. OUr apartment is pretty small which we have 4 people in. Our room is litterly the size of a large closet. The p`lace is super dirty. When <I got their I really wanted to leave. But i can adapt. It was horrible. They had all the doors and windows opened. Even at night when you shut them they still have cracks in them they look more like blinds than window. OUr heads are also right next to it. We sleep will the doors open to cool the house off. >So pretty much were living in in the outside. Anything and >I mean anything can get in. Last night was my first night and I didn't have a mosquito net. So I was freaked out of my mind of what things were going to crawl on me and live with me in the night. But We have fans so they keep us cool and the bugs off. Supposeivly. hahah. Last night around 4 in the morning I heard something scratching and trying to get the though the öpen window next to my head. It turns out it was a rat trying to get in. but My companion and >I hit the window a couple times so it went away. After that i couldnt go to bed 1st because i was scared and 2nd the fan shut off so it was boiling in our room. This is because the power works only half the time here. Its horrible for hours without electricity. ´We do have a shower but its purely cold water and their is no shower curtain because their isnt even a rod. We cant put toilet paper in he toilet either so we put it in the trash. The kitchen I wont go into but Mom you probably would cry. Lets just say their is more stuff then the 4 humans... hahhaha but all is well. My companion is so cool the best so far we will do great. His name is Elder Macy, he is from Cincinnati ohio. He is a blast. He just got done being a zone leader for 6 months and now  has 3 months left He comes home when Drew does. So here in my second day in the field or campo en espanol I really will appreciate everything in the future. I hope each of you can think of everything and be grateful. Its sad to see the things i do here but now I can be a more patient and thankful person. Sorry if this sounds gloomy but dont get me wrong. I bought a mosquito net and now my first night is done and after tons of cleaning. I think ill enjoy it here. I was also told i will most likely be in hte same place for 6 months. thaats a 4th of my mision. This is awesome and >I love the work. I love my lord Jesus Christ and Im glad to here everyone is fine. I pray for you everynight. I love you. I cant wait to here form you.
 
P.S. My pday was swithced to tuesdays so I will read and email back on tuesday.
Adios
 
Elder Anderson

---

See what you're getting into…before you go there See it!

Hola, Im so thankful for your support. Things are great here. Im having the time of my life. Today we went to the Temple and I went through a session in Spanish. It was really hard to understand. But the language is getting better. I can say tons of things in spanish but it takes me time in my mind to develop them. I love learning it though. Its a beautiful language. Also very fast. They chop off the ends and beginings here in the D.R. so its even more difficult to understand. Mexican Spanish is a breeze compared to here. I would already be fluent.ahhaha. J/K it would be hard though. I love going to the university and teaching peopel. My companion and I litterally ran down a guy to teach him. We had a feeling to teach him. We work well together and can give pretty good lessons in Spanish. We leave Tuesday morning for the actual missionfield. No more training. In a little time more I will be in the battle front in God's army. Ill be fighting in the front line. Im really excited. Im surprised I'm not even scared. Im seeing with new eyes here and appreciate everything I have. Im thankful for my Family and my friends. I love you guys. I love this Gospel and the Blessings it has given me. Im super blessed and I hope you all can look at the world and for what we have. I love the people here. They are the best. I have really gained a deep love for them already. Im super excited to gelp them come unto christ and share with them what I know to be true. Im thankful for my tesimony of this work adn for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love you all and wish you the Best Luck. I hope I can be able to write to you all and can awnser all your questions. I'm praying for you every night.

Elder Anderson

YOYO

Hey everyone, Im doing great here.Thanks for all the letters. Today was fun because we got to go to the Temple. It was been closed for a couple weeks. Im so blessed to be right next door. I have less then 2 weeks left here. Spanish is coming but not as fast as i want it. I can understand mostly everything but Speaking is the hard part. Just getting the right words out. For service we cleaned up the university. Ive really made good friends with the dominicans and puerto ricans. They are really funny, whats cool is that almost all of them are converts of just over a couple years. Some are 22, 21, 23, adn one is 25. I really admire them. Every North american this last monday had dirrerea at 2 at the morning. I went 3 time until the 9 in the morning. It was horrible but funny asking everyone on the floor if they had it. We think it was the beans. hahahah but we were good in a day.

Love Elder Anderson

Hey

Hey Everyone,

Im doing awesome here in the Dominican Republic. Today 18 elders from the D.R and Puerto Rico came in. So we no have about 50 people here then are usual 30. Classes are small we have 6 in my class. We speak tons of spanish. Right now every other day our district of elders can only speak spanish and nothing else. My favoritre thing to do here is to go to the University in Santo Domingo ( just a couple blocks away) and teach others little things about the gospel. It helps us tons in learning spanish and getting ready to teach. This is such an awesome experiance. Im loving the weather. It is pretty darn humid here but I actually enjoy it. But it really stinks when we do service and are working hard. Today we cleaned the street the temples on and then picked up grass on the lawn of the temple. They cut literally to the dirt. It is very strange. But very beautiful. Right now they are re-golding Moroni on top of the temple and cleaning the temple. So it will be out of service for another 2 weeks. But Ill get to go before I head into the field. I have 3 weeks left. Im so excited. I know Im not close to ready but I really want to get out their.I love the food. Its amazing. It gets old after awile but its always awesome. I love this work and Im trying to work really hard to learn spanish so I can teach better and get my thoughts out. My testimony has growns leaps. Now that the New Spanish speaking missionaries are here, we are pretty muched forced to speak in spanish. Well I have to go my time is up. I love you all and pray for you.

Sorry if I cant awnser all of your questions but I dont have a lot of time left. But right me back and tell me whats going on in your lives. I Love ya.

Elder Anderson

Hey Everyone, Im having so much fun here. I love the DR and its people. I really enjoy the humidity and the awesome weather. It is usually very nice but can get hot real fast when walking. My companion is Brother Cayton, hes Awesome hes 5'6" a little shorter than Elder Merrill's 6'5" ahhah. We work hard to gether and I like him a WHOLE lot better then Elder Merrill. We never watse time and do well keeping on track. Hes from Portland, Oregon. The Food is great, Their are always fruits for meals. The Main ones are bananas, pinnaple (my favorite), then papaya. We eat oatmeal, cereal, fruit, and either pankakes or french toast. FOr lunch its the huge meal and I mean huge. ITs RICE RICE AND BEANS. hahaha. Everyday with no change. good thing i like rice. They pour a little bean sause mix on top and serve with either chicken or beef. We also always have those conney breads and we put butter on those. they are very soft. The Juices here are world class. I dont know what kind they are but their awesome. He have awesome teachers here. They are all Dominican. They teach 80% in spanish and then a little english. Mostly when we arent in class or just goofing around talking to them. They are the funniest guys. A couple of days ago us missionaries went to a big super market. I bought a huge DR flag and some shirts. I bought one for Drew when he gets home. That was the most we had fun in a while.hahahah. We also had the opportunity to go to the University of Santo Domingo to talk to people. It was also the first week we were there. It was awesome to teach some principles in broken spanish. Its so cool that I wasnt scared at all but really wanting to talk to people. I cant wait till i get out in the field. We walked around and taught for about an hour and a half. The spanish is coming together very well. I can understand almost everything someone says but its saying something back that is hard. Im also learning the gospel way better and love learing more and more. It really is a wonderful thing. It is very dirty in the city though, but thats what u can suspect. It stinks sometimes and therir is litter everywhere. But i dont mind really. I just love being here. Its beautiful.

The CCM or MTC is a very nice and clean place. Id say more so in every aspect then the one in Provo. There are 29 missionaries here. We have 3 jamacians here (their awesome and I love to hear them talk). All are going in the DR but 3 others who are going to puerto rico. For P-Day, We have some weights here with 2 foosball tables and a ping pong table. Out side are some basketball hoops. I love to play basketball and ping pong. The temple is super beautiful and ill get some sweet pictures. We did a temple session and it is so cool in here.

Well I love ya all and hope all is well,

Elder Anderson

July 4, 2007

I made it here last night. We use the same schedule for getting here. We woke up at 2:00 a.m. then left SLC @ 6 A.M. From there we went through Dallas to Miami then to Danto Domingo. I really enjoyed the flights. There were 6 elders in our traveling group. What was awesome was that we got to teach people and hand out pass along cards. I gave an older couple on and told them a little about what we were doing. The man thought we were part of a singing group. But i said who we were and it was awesome. Going to Miami I got to sit next to an awesome girl from miami. We talked the entire time. I really felt like a missionary. So i gave her a pass along card and she promised she would. She also said that if I was in Miami that I should call her up.hahahah. IDK about tha but it was awesome. It was sweet being in a new country. We had 2 teachers who were dominicans pick us up. People drive crazy here. But I thought it was awesome. We are switching companions tommorow when the other group comes. Their will be a little over 30 missionaries here. There are 3 Jamacians her the rest are from the states. Well I e mail uyou more next week and tell you all about it. I dont know much.

Pouch takes 10 days and regualr is about 4 days. Dont send anything after the 26th of July, Then send thouse to the mission home. But until them you can send stuff to this MTC....

Elder Anderson

Wed June 26

Hey Everyone. How are you. Im doing alright except for the fact that our plane was canceled. We had our plans and everything. I Went to the travel office got prepared. Everything was underweight. We Woke up at 2:00 a.m. and got to the air port at salt lake at 4:30. oUR FIRST DEPARTURE WAS AT 6:00 a.m to Dallas. But then while waiting in line the airlines told us that our flight was canceled due to big thunderstorms. So we called the mission office and an hour later they picked us up. During that hour the 23 of us going sang hymns. So We got back into bus and headed home. We ate breakfast then went back to sleep for a couple more hours. So we went to the Temple today and Im really enjoying going. I really feel closer to God when Im there. And im starting and to memorise and say the parts back. So Hopefully tommorow or the next day we can leave. But for now im back with my old district and in the same bed. We were lucky. Other missionaries got kicked out of their rooms because of all the new missionaries that come in on wendsday. I also saw devon again. He's awesome and we bore each others testimonies in our respective languages. it was really neat. We did this outside with sack lunches. Last night for our tuesday devotional we had Elder Holland Speak, present were Elder Perry, Elder Eyring, Elder Scott, Elder Ballard, and Elder Uchtdorf. It was probably the best, most influential and emotional talk i have ever experianced. He spoke on the Atonement of christ. By the end their wasnt a dry face in the building as he bore a beautiful yet bold testimony. It was then followed by a powerful and very emotional prayer offered by an elder. He was hugged and kissed right after, by both brother holland and ballard. On suday President Monson spoke to us and taked about missionary work and about him and his dealings with missionaries in his life, especially as a 30 year old mission president. Its awesome at the MTC right now be cause this last week we have had the new mission presidents training. The whole place is shut down and on lock down. Apostles are wissing in and out of view as more thatn have of them are here each day. Even the prophet has come many instances. Seldom do people see them because of all the security protecting the mission presidents and Apotles. The spirit is so stong in their that even the teachers cant go in the main building, It is very sacresd and no one can talk to the MP's until they have been spoken to. Not even the teachers can speak or be with them. But it was an amazing expeiance seeing 118 new mission presidents from 16 nationalities be present. It was an amazing experiance, even having to wait in very long lines do to there presence.I hope all is well with you all. I hope this gets to everyone. I really am gaining a huge testimony of the gospel and learning spanish very well. Im glad im here. I hope that I can grow to love my companion but we are totally differeant. Im trying to be patient. Thats my biggest challenge here. But any ways I love the gospel and my savior jesus Christ. I love him and all of you. I hope to see you soon. Well not to soon. But the thought counts that I miss ya.Love,Elder Zabransky ( as my distict would call me)

Wed Jun 20

Hey Mom and Dad!!! I hope your having an amazing time in Europe. I hope you take lots of pictures. Well I wrote you a letter but i think you left the day it got home. But anyways, thanks for the package and card. I opened the card during class the other day and the music went off. We all thought it was really funny. Well, This is techinally my second week here but im in my 3rd according to their scheduale. I leave for the Island at 3:00a.m on wendsday. We then have flights from SLC to Dallas/Fort Worth, TX. Then to Miami, Fl. THen to Santo Domingo. At 6:00 am we leave SLC and arrive in Santo Domingo at 6:30 P.M. The MTC is a really neat place. I have enjoyed it very much. The food is amazing and you really are never hungry. I really enjoy my Teachers and My district. I was made the District Leader for our distrit of 8 Guys and 3 Girls. They are a rowdy bunch and I have to get on them a lot in the night. But its fun to have some fun elders. Everyone in our distict except for my companion and I are going to San Antonio. When I was set apart the Girl that was before us Sister Faulkner, is in my district. What a small world. ahaha. Well I saw Preston and Austin alot and also Kellee Walker. They all left last wendesday though.The language is coming pretty good. Within a couple days we could pray in spanish and testify. I can do all sorts of stuff now but We are concentrating most on Preach my gospel and the lessons. I love Preach my Gospel. Its the coolest book ever, other thatn the BOM. I've learned so much so far and am really gaining a super testimony of the gospel. My companoion is Elder Merrill, hes from Albany, Oregon. We actually were in a English 111 class at BYU-I together. He loves music and is very different then me. we clash a littlte and he gets to me sometimes but I try my best to make the best of it. He is the complkete opposite of what I want. But thats probably what I need. I need more patience and I think the lord is telling me that. Hes messy forgets tons of stuff so we have to go back and get it. Corrects me and sings all the time. But other than that I love the MTC and cant wait to get to the Santo Domingo MTC. I feel that Ive grown and Im glad i was given the opportunity to be the District leader. Since Ive been here Ive gained a greater respect for my Patriartical Blessing. I feel that every thing is coming true and is as planed. Ive really gained more in the understanding of the scriptures and of The gospel.Elder Uchdorf and Elder Christenson have talked to us in our 2 devotionals. I could really feel the spirit there. Its so cool to havew the spirit here alot. It seems as though there is no time. We wake up class, study eat. thats all we do. the days go by slow but the weeks fly by. I have attended the Provo temple last week adn will go again. It was a really sweet temple and a lot bigger than the Boise one. Its really cool to be a missionary but Its also in the back of my mind of wehat Im going to be or do when I get done with my mission. But dont worry I m focused. Im one of the better missonaries there are here. I really do understand what bad missisonarys are now. And it seems that the dorms are just like college dorms. Because the kids are really not mature, do stupid things and It dosnt really feel like a sacred place all the time. It gets to me how much diffrent I am from them. Their not bad kids but they, do things diffrently. And I belive that they can be a lot better. I just dont think they get why there there and who there serving. I usually am low key and sit in my room, write in my journal, or read the scripturtes. I think the postion of DL has made me keep in line and set the good example. The guy you knew before would be going nuts and crazy just like the others but I think Ive really grasped the concept of life and how were supposed to be. I really dont care about anything other than the gospel now. Its really weird but I think its awesome.Well I dont know when Im going to talk to you again with all the traveling and when you get this but Im guessing in 2 weeks because Im traveling next wendsday on my p day. So just be alerted. Ill see what i can do weith the mission preident. Ill also watch out for deven todayI am so thankful for your guidences and love as I was growing up. You really made me into a good elder, missonary and leader. I love you tonsElder Anderson

Pictures of My Farewell on May 27th 2007

Thanks to everyone who came to my farewell. I hope you enjoyed it.

Busy!!!!

I'm really starting to feel the heat now. My farewell in church is a month away (by the way it will be on May 27th @ 9:00 at the Columbia Village Building). I still cant belive how soon I will be gone. June 6th!!!!! Im working now for Garrett Hadley's dad and am doing some Tech Support. I'm just saving up as much as I can for my mission. I still love doing foolish things with my friends and serving my family in whatever ways I can. I now have a huge list to check off but Im sure I'll finish soon. I'm thankful for all my friends and family for all hte support and love I have recived. Ill update soon

WOOHOO!!! Im going to the Dominican Republic!!!

The weather is going to be awesome. It'll be summer all year long.

My awesome cousins Tyler (served in Arizona) and Devin (just called to Denmark).

Thanks for coming up guys!!!

The coolest mom ever. Theres nothing else to say.




Sweet sibling moments.














My favorite sister Nancy Eagan and her son Jaron also came up to see me.














Also 2 other roomates of mine were called to missions. Jordon (left, to South Korea) and Andrew (right, to Russia).