Weekly Letter

Salutations Friends and Family!

This week has been so great. The past few weeks and months have been great actually. I cannot express how good of a time I'm having here helping people to come unto Christ. The blessings that have come from my mission have been amazing. The ward that I am serving in has definitely "caught fire" as some say. The ward members are becoming more and more involved with the teaching and fellow shipping of investigators and we have been able to see a difference. 

We have one investigator I would especially like to tell ya'll about. His name is ****** and he's an 18-year-old guy. His brother was baptized about a year ago and they've both been coming to church for quite some time. We began teaching ******officially about 4 weeks ago. He has been progressing very well. Last Sunday we set a baptismal date for the 24th of August. The only problem was he lives in a city called Santa Ana which not only isn't in our ward or stake, but it isn't even in the Long Beach Mission! We were worried with how it would work out because his brothers records are here in the Fountain Valley Third Ward and he said that he wants to go to this ward. This posed a major problem. He was most likely going to get baptized in the Santa Ana Stake. Some of you may notice I am speaking in the past tense even though this is a future event. Allow me to explain. We spoke with the Bishop of our ward and he spoke to the Mission President. Some how, I'm still not sure how, we got permission to have the baptism here in Fountain Valley. This is definitely a miracle because this process usually takes weeks to work out. It took him 2 days. We are extremely excited for******to be baptized because now we will be able to attend.

The Lord will always work things out. He always has, he always does, and he always will. All we can do sometimes is have hope that things will work out and they will. I know they will.

Thank you for all your wonderful support. You are all awesome and I love you all. I appreciate everything that you all do. Keep being the great people that you all are.

Love,

Elder Sanderson :D

Week of August 12th

Dear Family and Friends,

Hi! Our P-day got switched to today so we could go to the temple just in case you are wondering why I did not email back. The temple was super cool. I got some good pictures this time! As I'm sure you know the new video is awesome! I'm super pumped that we got to see it so soon after it came out. The shirts and ties will be much appreciated!

It's super crazy how much there is going on there in the Burnsville ward! I'm sort of used to things just staying the same all the time!  I'm still so blown away by how many awesome missionaries will be out in the field from our ward. It's such a cool time to be a member of the church right now!   I love it!  There's so much to be proud of and there's so much to share with other people.

My companion is super cool. His name is Elder Roothoff. His mom is probably going to be calling you sometime soon actually. I gave our home phone number to her a while back. That should be fun. 

I'm looking forward to having zone conference tomorrow so we can hear from President Tew again. Also there's a new rule for missionaries that we need to start using like side satchels or something like that. It's been hard to find one so if you could track one down for me that would be awesome!  Also if you could find out a way to get a military set of scriptures that would be super awesome to have. I still have the Book of Mormon one but I think that at least a New Testament one would be really useful. Other than that I'm all good.

We have an investigator that we've been teaching. I think I've talked about him a little. He's a 18-year-old guy who's been going to church for a while now. We had a lesson with him on Sunday night and we set a baptismal date for him for the 24th of August. He's facing some adversity with his mom at home but he's determined to talk to her about it. He's an awesome kid.

I say this in almost every email but members are so important to include in the work. It moves things so much more. The investigators find friends right away when members are involved. It's just so awesome to see.

Thanks for all the love and support!

Love

Elder Sanderson

Dear Family and Friends

     I think I've missed a few weeks. Oops, sorry 'bout that.  Anyway, I've been transferred to Huntington Beach, well Fountain Valley to be specific.  It's great here.  The church is way strong and the members are very willing to help move the work along.  We have a family that we've been teaching.  They are awesome and last Sunday (June 21) they came to church!  They had a great time and I can tell that they loved being there.  The kids had fun hanging out in Primary, which is usually a tough part about coming to church for investigators with kids.  The best part was the members.  They were so cool about it!  Everyone was greeting them and welcoming them and all this awesome stuff.  It was so cool to see the members be so nice and welcoming.  It makes a huge impact on the investigators when they show so much love.  The influence of members is really what helps investigators the most.  Going to church can be hard at first, but it gets a lot easier when you have constant love and support.  

     You all are awesome.  I am so thankful for all your love and suppoer.  This is a great time to be able to watch the Lord hastening His work.  Keep on being the great people that you all are.  Remember that I love and pray for you all.

Love,

Elder Sanderson

Week of July 15th, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

I found out that I'm going to be transferred to Huntington Beach! I'll be serving in the Fountain Valley 3rd ward. I'm super excited and I've heard that that's a great ward. I've also heard that HB can be pretty tough sometimes. My companion is named Elder Roothof and he's from Utah. He's another spanish speaking missionary (my third in a row) and so I'm going to have him teach me Spanish. I figured that if I've had this many Spanish companions then I might as well just ask one of them to teach me. I'll be leaving tomorrow morning and it should be a great time.

That's so crazy that Paul's leaving so fast! It seems like just yesterday he got his call. I've heard a lot from Elder Jones. He's sent me a ton of pictures already and it seems like he's having a good ol time.

Our baptism went really well! One and done baby! ***** was really excited and we had a great turn out from the ward. His dad has agreed to drive me to HB tomorrow so that'll be tight. I'm excited to see what HB is like. I'll let you know when I get there!

Love you!

Elder Sanderson

Week of July 8th, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

      It's been a while since I've written.  Things are going well!  We will be having a baptismal service this Saturday.  The first of my mission!  Wow!  He's a 12 year old named ***** ******.  His family are members but have been less active for a number of years.  I am convinced that our success with ***** has been greatly powered by the love and fellowship of our ward.  For that I am truly grateful.  

      We have also been able to have what's called a "blitz"  All the missionaries in our district came together and we all worked in the same ward boundary to try and find more people to teach.  We have already been able to see some of the fruits of our labor and many other will come soon.  

      I'm very grateful for all your love and support.  Remember that I keep you all in my thought and prayers.  Continue to be the  awesome people that I know you all are!

Love, 

Elder Sanderson

June 24th.2013

Dear Family and Friends,

All is well in this part of the Lord's vineyard.  The work is beginning to go forward.  The Worldwide Leadership broadcast was this last Sunday and it was a great reminder of the importance of member missionary work.  since I have the blessing of serving as a full-time missionary I can testify of the importance of missionary work.  The members of the ward help to ensure that investigators are comfortable at church, they provide investigators or recent converts with a friend and they can help the missionaries find and teach investigators.  

In Doctrine and Covenants we are given a promise.  We learn that if we bring one of the souls our Heavenly Father has created, great shall be our joy.  Furthermore we learn that, "If your joy will be great with one soul...How great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me." (D&C 18:15-16)  I cannot think of any more joyous an occasion than that of a baptism of someone who has accepted the gospel.  I cannot even imagine the joy of seeing that person, as Doctrine and Covenants states, "In the kingdom of my Father".

Through embracing member missionary work we can all work towards our goal of having true joy.  May we all have a fullness of joy.  Remember that it was Jesus Christ himself who said "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15)

Elder Sanderson

Dear Friends and Family

Today (6-10-13) I hit my two month mark!  It's gone by so fast I can't even comprehend it!  The past few weeks have been crazy.  Transfers were this last week.  My trainer, Elder Wahlen, was transferred, which is very rare.  Usually trainers stay for 12 weeks.  Since he's gone and my new companion, Elder Burns, has never been here in Whittier, I now am a lot more responsible for things like planning and getting where we need to go.  It's sort of tough since I've only been here for 7 weeks now and it's my first area.  At first it was a little scary, not going to lie.  It's not too scary anymore though.  I know that I'm being led by the Lord and I know that as long as I'm doing His work, I'll know where to go, what to do and what to say.  The Lord provides a way.  Who can forget the courageous words of Nephi?  "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."  (1 Nephi 3:7)  How often are we asked to risk our possessions, or even our lives?  How often are the Lord's commandments things such as "Love one another"?  (John 13:34) How often does he ask us to simply show our love for someone who overcame the world for us?  King Benjamin basically lays out all that our Heavenly Father requires of us.  "And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promise you that... ye should prosper in the land... therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you".  (Mosiah 2:22)  Our Father in Heaven loves us all individually.  He has a plan for all of us.  If we will "Go and do" as Nephi, we are promised blessings.  May we all "Go and do". 

I'm very grateful for all your love and support.  I appreciate everything that has been sent, mailed, etc. I pray for you all each day and I love you all.  Remember that your Father in Heaven loves you as well.

Elder Sanderson