Talofa O'u aiga ma uo!

So this week was pretty cool. We had a lot of fun for sure. We helped a few people do some service. One type of service we did was taking apart pallets so that this lady could make furniture out of it. Look it up on Pintrest that's where she got the idea from. That was extremely difficult. We didn't even finish it either. Turns out those things are dang hard to get apart. I only broke 4 of the panel things on it. You know what it is. We're going back tomorrow to finish the job. Hopefully we can do it without breaking everything we try to take apart.

We also got to teach a lot more than usual this week. Our Mission President has really been focusing on making sure that every companionship teaches every night. In this mission that's sort of tough to do but we're working on changing the culture of this mission to be a mission where missionaries teach. We hope to be able to look back and say "the missionaries in the California Long Beach Mission teach every night". Everything we do has a culture. A culture is a way of life, an expectation or a standard that you hold a group of people to. Along with groups, individuals also have a culture. I think that could be better worded as a character. President David O. McKay said “We sow our thoughts, and we reap our actions; we sow our actions, and we reap our habits; we sow our habits, and we reap our characters; we sow our characters, and we reap our destiny.” Changing your character to be someone different, someone better, starts one thought at a time. Trust me. My mission has changed me more than I could have ever known but my character didn't start to change for the better until I dug deep and started to change who I was, starting with what I thought.

I hope you guys all have a great week! I love you guys!

Elder Sanderson

#leavebetter

We moved this week!

Woo! Our last apartment was tiny. This one is nice and spacious. Also moving allowed us to use this!

​

We got to drive the mission truck! It's a 2014 Chevy Silverado! Sick! That was a ton of fun. We loaded that bad boy up and took care of everything we had. 

Well that's all I really have time for this week! Have a great week!

Keep it real.

Elder Sanderson

#leavebetter

Hello Erryone!

Transfer calls came in an I found out that Elder Van Kammen and I are staying together again. It's pretty cool. This ward is the bomb. It's going to be a great place to die. Unless President Tew decides to send me back to HB for my last transfer. That's pretty much all I'll ask him to do every week this transfer. Just kidding I'm glad to be wherever the Lord needs me to be. This week we were able to teach a lot more than the past few weeks. It's good because it seems to be a trend that the end of the transfer is always a really slow week but we've kept things pretty consistent. This week should be pretty fun. It's cool to get to see all the new missionaries who come into the zone. Our zone is pretty "stacked" right now. There are a ton of awesome missionaries here. There are quite a few brand new missionaries in this zone. It's always awesome having brand new missionaries (not greenies, Elder Baxter from the Quorum of the 70 told us not to use that term anymore when he came here last month). They always seem to bring a lot of enthusiasm to the zone instead of being old washed up cynics like me. Just kidding that's not how I am at all. 

Well, I hope all of you have a great week and remember how much I appreciate all of your lives. 

Keep it real.

Elder Sanderson

#leavebetter

Hey hey hey,

This week turned out really good. Christmas was the BOMB. We got to watch "It's a Wonderful Life". That movie is also the BOMB. We also had a brunch. Brunches are the BOMB. Everything we did on Christmas was pretty much the BOMB. It's good that our mission is so tiny that getting a zone full of missionaries is super easy. Our dinner was really cool too. We ate with an old lady and her family and she gave us these awesome handmade blankets. Those blankets are the BOMB.

The beginning of the week was slow with teaching but we did get to have a great time caroling to some investigators/LA's on Christmas Eve and Night. Even though the beginning of the week was slower the weekend was awesome. All the investigators that we found were Saturday and Sunday and they were all awesome miracles. They were all pretty similar too. We would go to a potential that we either had met before or set up a return appointment with and we went over and the were super open and willing to read the things we left with them like pamphlets or the Book of Mormon. We hope to be able to have really good lessons with them this week and to see if we can get any of them with baptismal dates.

I hope you guys all had a sick Christmas. I know I sure did. This was my last one of my mission. Crazy. It was also my last Skype home. WUT. #4months #nottrunky

Anywho, remember that you guys are awesome and that oute alofa iate outou! 

Keep it real.

Elder Sanderson

#leavebetter

Dear Friends and Family,

Sorry I haven't been sending out very many of these. It's been pretty hard to find the time to email lately. Things have been real real here. Christmas is just about here and even though this crazy upside down place I'm in doesn't have any snow I'm still extremely happy to be spending another Christmas in the Great California Long Beach Mission. So far things are going great. We've had a few great experiences this week. One was when we were with a member visiting some people. Nobody was there, but as we were standing there the daughter in law rolled up and we starting talking to her and, long story short, she let us in and we taught her! It was awesome! Finding new investigators every week is possible! It's one of my favorite phases in missionary work for sure.

The hustle and bustle is continuing to pick up and I'm sure by the night before Christmas there will be many many creatures stirring around trying to get the last minute shopping done. From the stores with 50% off Christmas decorations to the BOGO sales many many people will be so focused on getting things done before Christmas that they might forget why they're really celebrating. Let's not forget why this all came to be. 

This all came to be because 2000 years ago a baby was born. Lots of babies were born before that and lots of babies have been born since and lots of babies will yet be born, but this one was different. This baby was not just another bundle of joy given to faithful parents. No, this baby was someone else. This baby had a divine destiny that reached far beyond any other baby. This baby was born of an earthly mother but a heavenly father. This baby was a promised gift, a foretold bringer of peace and goodwill. Rather than his birth being announced by just his parents, it was announced by angels. This baby was Jesus the Christ. This baby was the fulfillment of every prophet from Adam down. The birth of Jesus, like any other gift, is not something we should take for granted. "For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift." (D&C 88:33 italics added) Let us receive the gift of Jesus' birth and rejoice in Him and He who is the giver of the gift, our Father in Heaven.

I love you guys and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope you all have a fun and safe time. Have fun in the snow for me! (for those of you who are fortunate enough to have it)

Keep it real merry.

Elder Sanderson

#leavebetter

Cerritos zone!

I found out I'm leaving Cerritos and going back to Long Beach!! It's a different part though. It's the nice part. :D

Elder Sanderson

#leavebetter

Howdy!

This week was pretty hectic again. This is the last week of having two wards to cover! Woo! It'll be nice to go back to covering one ward. It's been pretty fun to cover two wards but a ton of time was spent driving around. I can't wait to get to bike around again! We also had a lot of crazy stuff happen with investigators and we had to drop some of our favorite investigators because the parents don't want them investigating and even though some of them are over 18 they want to respect what their parents say. That's a bummer but we'll be all good. 

It's starting to cool down here and stay cooled down. It still doesn't drop below 50 and it's usually in the 60's but for here that's considered cooling down. This is my favorite time of year in California. It's the bomb.

This week was a pretty trying week but here I am on Monday again! It's funny that hard weeks seem like forever at the time but looking back it goes by so fast. Heavenly Father definitely helps us through our hard times. If we are so focused on how unhappy we are it's impossible to see the positive side of a situation. There is always a positive side to things. God himself created this world so there will never ever ever be a lack of goodness. It may be hard to find, it may be small, but it will always be there. God will not allow his creations to become overwhelmed with darkness, and that even goes for you too! Remember that we're God's creations too.

Well, that's all for this week. Keep on truckin on! God will not let you fail! E moni le Talalelei!

Keep it real.

Elder Sanderson