So Cleburne is Awesome!!!!

 

So Cleburne is awesome!!!! So different though because its like a country small town. Only like 30,000 people vs Denton over 100,000 consisting of mainly students.

My apartment is pretty nice. Not like my Denton apartment or Lewisville apartment but nice. And it has a balcony so I can do studies outside again!!!

We have a bage?  not sure how to spell that color… 2010 Ford Fusion and I am the driver because Elder Olvera can’t drive

The Ward is a English ward, and we’re the Spanish group to it. And its also a Marshallese ward. Yea, kinda weird. But yea we’re trying to help the Spanish work out here so that it can eventually become a Branch!!

We have a few awesome investigators, and then other AMAZING investigators!!! Like we have a few bap dates coming up and they are like SOLID!!! They told me their conversion story and it’s pretty cool, like they were definitely prepared by God!!!

And the city of Cleburne ain’t too big…it’s like a southern town. Like I’m not joking, this is Texas!!!!!

Elder O has been out for a year, so only a few months more than me. And it’s his first time being senior comp so its cool cuz I can relate to him and what’s going on. The only  is that he speaks fluent spanish already. 🙂 haha and funny note, I already knew that Hispanics LOVE to talk, but now I know how much Hispanics LOVE talking to Hispanics. 🙂 So that’s been a fun one to watch. 🙂

 

Oh and so funny thing. Our ward has English Missionaries too (well, English and Mashallese, they’re a zebra companionship), and their apartment is right behind ours. And they have the dryer, and we have the washer. So we share. 🙂 Haha it’s interesting!

We email at the library here in Cleburne and its funny cuz here they know the missionaries just like they do in Denton. When we don’t come, or when we’re late, they wonder what’s up. 🙂 haha

About Ipads, we’re going to get them sometime next year in 2014. That’s all that President knows. And when we get them we will have an hour of Facebook time as well. But right now we just have an hour a week of Mormon.org when we can get familiar with the new stuff on there.

Having a car is AWESOME!!! 😀 I missed having a car. I didn’t miss not driving though. 🙂 haha cuz it’s a lot of pressure driving the Lord’s car. And our area is pretty big. 🙂 haha I think it’s like 40 miles by 20 miles? That’s a guestimate… 🙂 haha

And this is not like Denton, so we don’t get fed too much. Like maybe once a week. And they are white people so I have to get normal to random food. With Hispanics you can just always expect to have rice, beans, and tortillas. And then something else random. 🙂 haha

Having Elder O being fluent is pretty cool. He told me my Spanish is really good for how long I’ve been out.

 

Just remembered something!!! So because we have a spanish group in the ward, we  have to translate sacrament meeting and priesthood… TRANSLATING IS HARD!!!! 🙂 haha

 

Walmart is like 2 minutes away from our apartment so that’s nice. And yea, we go to Walmart for all the shopping. 🙂 haha

And I don’t know anything about my district or zone yet (besides the other Elders in our ward, Elders T (from the marshal islands, but also from Hawaii so he speaks good english) and Y. Wednesday we have zone training so I’ll meet everyone.

 

Today plans are clean the apartment and try to make it feel like home again. That’s the only hard part about transfers is having to get comfortable again. 🙂 We just do stuff with the other elders too because the closest missionaries are over 30 miles away so…. 🙂 haha this ain’t Denton or Lewisville anymore!

 

So this last week! This is what went down as fast as I can type it. 🙂

 

So Noche de Hogar on Monday was awesome!!!! C and his brother and dad came and we had a blast!!! Afterwards, there was a “Zombie Run” for the YSA ward and we invited C to go so he could meet the YSA that spoke spanish, and he went!!!! So guess what?! We could go!!! It was super fun and I love being able to do stuff with our investigators to help get them fellowshipped and get to know the church better with members instead of us. 🙂

Then Tuesday we did packing and taught a few lessons, said goodbyes to people during lunch and dinner, and then had Spanish class and got to say goodbye to the Porters and Tryons.

Then Transfers! It was weird….like always. And then I found out everything that I’ve told you already. 🙂 haha

So for Halloween we had to be in by 6pm…and then we had to do our weekly planning then, even though we had our ward party during that same time, with investigators there. But oh well, President’s orders. 🙂 He knows more than we do!!

Then Friday we just had a full day of lessons. And same with Saturday. Except we also did service for a member in our ward with the other elders. And then Church yesterday. 🙂

 

Now I’m gonna give a run down on a few awesome experiences we had!!!

 

So we have been tracting a ton…like a ton!!! And we ran into this one guy and his dad. So we taught them, answered some questions that we had, and then we got a return appointment for the next day. Well, we went back the next day to teach the son, and we are teaching him, he tells us (meanwhile the spirit is like so strong it was like the air was thick! no joke) that he feels like the message is true and he wants to find our for sure so he asked us for a book of mormon! AWESOME!!! It gets better. We then ask him if there was anything in his life that God wanted him to change. And then he told us that he needed to start praying, reading the scriptures, going to church, stop drinking and smoking, etc. So then WE asked him to give us all of his alcohol and cigarettes…….. And he did!!!!! he didn’t have any alcohol, but he gave us his new pack of cigarettes!! And he told us that he wanted to quit and that he needed help. So we told him that Christ would help him if he did a few different things. 🙂 Only sad part is! he didn’t come to church…. and he punched on our next apointment.

 

Next cool story!! So I met the investigators that are going to be baptized! They are solid!!! And we had this awesome lesson with them in a members home. 🙂 So she got her answer that this church is true because she has a baby that was sick and asked God to heal him and she promised God that she’d go to church, and her baby was healed! But she didn’t go to church…. so the baby started to get sick again. Well she prayed again and then the missionaries, within minutes, knocked on her door. And she started to come to church and now her baby is healthy again. 🙂 Then her husband he works in the oil fields and so he’s here 2 weeks, gone 2 weeks. Well while he was gone he was reading the bible about Noah’s ark and then he asked God if the book of mormon was true, and a dove flew right past him. So… he took that as his sign from God. 🙂 Which I don’t doubt was a sign from God!!! So now they are getting baptized on the 30th of November. 🙂

 

And then we also have another guy getting baptized next month, the 7th of December, and he is awesome too! He reads the book of mormon everyday and lets us come over whenever we want in the evenings! He feels like he might not be prepared, but he’s getting there and he knows it. :

And it is getting cold here!! haha

And I probably will be here for Christmas. O has been here for 4 and a half months, so he’s most likely going. Rarely someone stays in an area longer than 6 months. And its also weird for someone to be transferred to an area for only one transfer.

 

I love you to the moon and back forever and ever and always!!!

 

Elder Josh Andersen 🙂