ONE SUPER WET WEEK

Hello Everyone!!!! This week was very wet. We had 6 straight days of rain. ON saturday we also had 3 more baptisms. It is amazing how much sucess we are having. Even the President of the Branch was thinking about opening up the dividers in the chapel. The church was full of people. As a zone we are are at the top of the mission. We have done a complete turn around here in Barahona. We haven´t even gotten close to reaching our potential. We are terying and trying to teach the missionaries how we have found success with the Presidents councils to us. It is all about obedience. ONly 2 of the 5 areas in our zone are doing what they are supposed to. And guess what, they aren´t having sucess. We have done all we can do and we will continue to lead by example. We have seen a great change in the other compañionships though. They are incresing and growing but we hope that they change their perspectives about the mission. They need to forget themselves and go to work. It is as simple as that.  This saturday we have 4 more planned then 4 the week after then a huge day of 10 people on the 13 of June. Even though I wont be their it brings me such great joy that 2 families will be added to the church. I guess we are in a red alert for storms this week so Ill try really hard to dry all my water-soaked from this last week. It is a nice change from the super hot and bright sun.hahahhaha. I love this work so much. It is such a great pleasure to be a missionary at this time. I hope that I can still continue to grow and learn more this next week. I hope that you have a great memorial day and also Happy Birthday mom, your the best one ever.

 

Love YA

 

Elder Spencer William Anderson

An amazing week!!!!!!

Well this week was absolutly awesome. I had one of the most successful weeks in my mission. We ended up the week with 3 baptisms. The 3 are all huge. 2 men and a Lady. They are all above 6 feet. During the week we worked super hard with the members. We went out with a total of 10 different people. It is amazing how hte work is really changed. The Mission President now has asked us to have members teach our investigators about Family History. It was an amazing spirit. We brought a 4 generation family tree from FAMILYSEARCH and left the member and the investigators with the sheet.  It is a really neat thing to see our investigators finding hte names of their ansestors and having the desire for them to be baptized. It really gives them the desire too, to get  baptized and start the work for others. Im am very pleased to say thet all of the new converts here in BArahona are super active. They have such a strong base now. We have started to rebuild teh Home Teachers program and also We have now 6 ward missionaries. 3 are new members, and one was less active that we helped activate. We have a little army. ONe day we were walking by the church then we saw two guys walking around in shits, ties, backpacks, and plaques. It turns out two recent converts got together on their own to do visits. When I saw that I was filled with a deep joy. I felt that our work was doing somthing. THe other day we also split off and went out with to ward missionaries. It was amazing all that we could do. It is a perfect situation here. We have an entire army of members now ready to work. The work is going to explode in the next months. With the help of the Lord and the members we have revamped the Branch. We had 135 people in church. When we got their it had between 95 and 100 people. I promised the members 200 active members by the end of the year with their help. Even though my time here is quickly dissolving away we´re just preparing the branch for the future. We now have 19 baptismal dates for the 23, 30, and 6. We are really hoping to be able to keep an equalibrium of always having 15 or more baptismal dates every week. So we will baptize 3 or 4 people then we need to put 3 or 4 dates with people. I know that the Lord is on our side. His Spirit is what testifies to hte people. The Spirit talks to the hearts of men. The Spirit brings light to them and helps them understand truth.  I love you all and hope that you can all meet your potential of you creation. We all can become as Christ. All our neighbors friends and families all have the potential to be as Christ. It is our responsability to help them understand that and then to work for it.

 

It was awesome to hear all of your voices on Mother´s Day. I love you all.

 

 

Elder Spencer William Anderson

La Última llamada!!!

Well yesterday was my last call home as a missionary. It was a weird phone call because I didnt know what to say. I tell you pretty much everything in my letters and you all know about what my mission is like. But I did love hear the voices of my loved ones. I am so blessed to have such a great family and to feel such great love not only for me but for the Lord. Well this last week we had 3 baptisms. We needed to move 5 others to other dates based on their needs. This week we are planning on 4 baptisms. We have recieved so many blessing from being obedient to the Lord´s servents. We are planning on going on many splits with the new reciently called branch missionaries. They are really going to help us and we are going to prepare and build up visits from the members. Home teachers dont do anything here so we are going to have the branch missionaries visit the new recent converts. I´m pretty sure that they will take care of htem and will be able to show missionaries were they live. It is essencial that those people be visited by the members so that they can grow from their infancy to being a little bit more grown up. New converts are very fragile so it is very important that hte members take interest in them. Well we are excpecting great things this week and of course we are going to work hard.

 

I love you all with all my heart.

 

 

Elder Spencer Anderson

Una semana grande.

Today was a holiday here in the DR. It was their labor day. So it was really hard to get into the internet. Elder Jimenez and I have been deeply blessed for our hard work and sacrifices. It is amazing what miricles can happen as we follow God´s will. Being obedient to all his commandments gives us spiritual power and we recieve many blessings. I love this Area in Barahona. I know the Lord wanted me too come here to Barahona and do a great work. I really didn´t know what to think when President Almonte changed his minded on me being a field Assistent and placed me in the least producing Zone in the mission. But I know that my thoughts aren´t the Lords thoughts neither are my ways his ways. Now I can see what the Lord saw.  At the end of this transfer we are either going to be the number 1 or 2 zone in the mission. The Distirct of Barahona has changed completly adn is well on its way to becomeing a stake. The faith of the missionaries and apllying what President Almonte has said has given them what it takes to make miricles. As a companionshp we had a great week this last week as we had 4 bautismos. Everyone of them has come from past family members baptisms. We worked really hard this week as we only teach lessons with members present. It makes so much of a difference to be with members who they know or members that can help them progress. From doing that the Lord enabled us to have 12 investigators in church on Sunday. We currently have 15 investigators with baptismal dates for this month of May and we are not going to stop there. We are continually meeting and preparing many faithful familiys and individuals. This next week we are going to have a huge week with 9 baptisms. When the president of the branch announced that, all the members gasped and started whispering and excitment filled the air. The progress we have had here in this area has been incredible. The numbers in the church has grown tremendously, all sights of apostasy have being taken out and order is being established.We have had more than one baptism every week for the past 3 months. What we have learned is that we are to work in the manner of the Lord and by his power. I know that by the power of prayer hearts may be softened and changed. What I have seen as a missionary is that everyone can changed. The Lord´s restored Gospel heals the wounded and the weak. It blessed the lives of all the people that accept it. You can see the differnce in their eyes and their countinence shines above all other things. If our eyes are pure then are hearts are pure and we will spread light unto others. I invite all of you and I to live a little more rightously and to have pure hearts so that the Spirit can work through us to bless the lives of others. We have many great plans and goals this week and we are excited about all the work we have to do this week.

 

I love you all and miss you all. I hope to be able to speak to as many of you as I can on Mothers Day. It will be very memorable.

 

Elder Spencer Anderson