My dear Friends and Family,

I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve the Lord and to bring others to a knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The calling of being a missionary is such a blessing and along with that call comes a lot of strength to overcome weakness. That being said, a tag is not a requirement for missionary work, a white shirt and tie is not the only uniform that missionaries can have. The call to share the gospel is not only extended to those who leave their homes for 2 years (or 18 months). The call to share the gospel is extended to every one. 

Now, is it the duty of every member to go out and proselyte all day every day? No. Does everyone need to spend all of their time, energy, and talents preaching? No. The Lord expects members of the church to be just that. Members of the church. Just remember that one of the things that we've agreed to is to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ.

I love all of you. I've began adopting a short phrase that a friend of mine named Elder Child. It is this: Keep smiling.

My beloved Friends and Family, Keep smiling. :)

Love,

Me.

Dear Family and Friends,

Conference weekend was great! We were blessed to be able to watch 10 hours of Prophets and Apostles!!! There's nothing better than that! We were able to hear so many great and powerful things from inspired men who truly speak the words that Heavenly Father gives them.

I received a fun call on Friday. Just a little background before I tell the story. This Tuesday is transfers. The Wednesday before transfers, the Assistants to the President make phone calls to those who have been selected to serve in leadership positions. I did not receive a call then. Okay, now that you know all that I will continue. I was sitting at my desk after I had finished eating lunch. I saw that Elder Dixon, one of the Assistants, was calling. I was confused but answered. "Hello, this is Elder Sanderson" I said. "Hello Elder Sanderson, this is Elder Dixon. I have a few questions for you." He said back. I was a little hesitant but I said "Okay" and he asked my the first question. He said "Why did the Lamanites knees hurt?" I replied with the obvious answer of "Because of all the Nephites!" We had a nice laugh and then he asked me the second and more important question. He asked me, told me rather, that I had been called to be a District Leader. I was very surprised, because as I said earlier, leadership calls were on Wednesdays and I never had anyone call me. Well, turns out the Assistants forgot to call me on Wednesday to tell me! So the lesson of this story is to be prepared for anything! I've been here for only 6 months now. As much as I would like to say that I am doing a good job here, I still don't know nearly as much as a District Leader should. I guess the Lord thinks that I can handle being a District Leader while training, and only being out for 6 months. If he thinks that, then I guess I have some work to do to get to the place where the Lord wants me to be. The Lord has great expectations and it's our job to do all that we can to meet those expectations. Luckily for us God knows we aren't perfect and only expects us to try our very hardest. For that I am very grateful.

I love all of you. I try my best to do magnify my efforts here in hopes that the Lord will bless my loved ones. I know that he will.

Love,

Elder Sanderson

Hello Friends and Families,

Hope ya'll are keepin it real. It was good to hear from so many of you this past week. For those who did not, I will forgive you. Don't let it happen again.

This past week was pretty nice. We had a good solid week of working hard. We didn't really have any appointment set up but we made the best lemonade that we could have from the lemons that were dealt to us and it was very enjoyable. The phrase "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" is most likely one of the most used cliches to ever be used. That being said it is perhaps one of the most true. I can think of so many times in my life where I decided to, instead of making lemonade, wonder to myself 'why on earth do I even have these lemons? What could these dang lemons ever do for me?' Thinking like this is just outright silly. We may be able to justify it at the time but when it comes right down to it we can choose. "Wherefore men are free according to the flesh...to choose liberty and eternal life" That's happiness. "or to choose captivity..." Unhappiness. (2 Ne 2:27) We can choose. Some of you may be thinking "You are being unreasonable, how can you just choose to be happy when something bad happens?" That's a difficult question. If I could answer it perfectly then there would be little need for me to have said the things that I have just said. Bad things happen. Of that I am quite aware. The way we choose to respond to trials determines how they play out. 

So on the subject of trials and what to do with them I would like to put my spin on the "lemons" cliche. When life gives you lemons ask for help to make lemonade. Remember that you are not alone. Remember that you have someone on your side. Remember that even if it seems like things are dark that we have someone who has endured more for our sake. The Lord Jesus Christ said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 17:33) We will have trials and tribulation but we are not alone in them. Alone it is impossible but with the help of our Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ. It is.

I hope that everything is going well and that you all are doing great. I love all of ya'll!

Love

Elder Sanderson

Greetings family and friends,

How are you guys doing this week? I am hoping to hear from you all. 

This week has been great. We had some awesome experiences. We were able to attend a Training that was focused entirely on finding new investigators. It turned out to be just what we needed! We were able to have a great time trying to implement the things that we learned into our daily efforts.

One of the great experiences that we had was with a guy named Darren. He was a potential that we had been trying to visit. We had stopped by in the past, but he was always busy. We stopped by him a few days ago and he responded the same as always, that he wants to meet up but he's busy. We started talking with him and we asked him very simply, "why do you want to meet with us?", a question that seems to not accomplish much but helped him to open up and begin talking about how he was searching for the truth and everything. We answered a ton of questions for him and left him with a prayer. At the end of our meeting he said something to the effect of, "This didn't just happen. You guys are here for a reason". The Lord does prepare people and they are searching for truth. That's why it's so important to share this gospel with everyone.

I love all of you. You are all awesome. Keep it up!

Love,

Elder Sanderson :D

Hola mi familia y amigos

To start off I wish to tell of an experience I had not too long ago. The story of my first California haircut. In the past I have been able to get haircuts from other missionaries. When I got here in Huntington a month or so ago that was not the case. I went to a small barber shop and sat down. The lady asked my how I wanted it cut and I told her how I wanted it. She proceeded to cut my hair. She was quick and it was over surprisingly fast. This should have been my first red flag. She showed me my hair and it looked nice. I felt that it was good and so I paid and left. Upon further inspection I realized that the sides and back of my hair had been cut just fine but I saw that she had only blended in the top of my head. The top of my hair had not been cut at all. My bangs reached almost to my nose and I didn't want to go back to have it cut again out of fear of embarrassment. I had to do my best to get my hair in a good enough of a side-swept motion so as to hide the unmissionary-like length of my hair.

What on earth does that have to do with anything. It has very little relevance to anything, I just figured that ya'll were extremely interested.

This week was pretty good. We had much more lessons than usual! We were challenged to invite someone to be baptized this week and we did! She said no D: Just kidding she didn't really answer it very directly. She said that if the Book of Mormon was true then she would. So, in short she will probably be baptized soon because the Book of Mormon is true! But seriously, the Book of Mormon can really be an anchor for any situation. Do not be afraid to open it. No matter what your situation. Maybe you need help with a problem, maybe you need a voice of reason, maybe you're having a hard time with knowing if this church is really true. Never be afraid to turn to the Book of Mormon. It doesn't matter if you've read it a hundred times or if you've never even opened it before of your own free will. It doesn't matter if you grew up going to primary or if you've never stepped foot in a church before. It doesn't matter if you go to church every week or if you haven't gone to church for years. The Book of Mormon is not biased, it does not judge. The only thing that can keep you back from receiving answers from it is yourself. Read it and see if it does not speak to your very soul. I know it speaks to mine so the principal is the same for all of you.

To those of you who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, cherish the precious truths that bless you daily. To those who are not, try it for yourself and ask God if it's true. To those who have fallen away or those who feel as though the church has let them down, do not give up, remember that the Lord always welcomes change with open arms. The people may not be perfect by you can sure bet that the Lord is, and he's the one that runs this church.

I cannot express how much this gospel has blessed me. I know it blesses us all. Thank you for all that you do; for all the love and support. I cannot adequately express my love for each and every one of you. Nonetheless I will continue to try my best. My heart and prayers are with you all.

Much love,

Elder Sanderson

My beloved friends and family,

I have come to the realization of something quite crucial. Something that I was quite sure of but had never yet confirmed my feelings about. I will elaborate. Not too long ago I took a trip to a nice place called Walmart. While I was shopping I came across an exceedingly curious food item. I looked at the label which read: "MEGA STUFF OREOS". I paused for but a moment, then made my choice; I purchased them and then was on my way. Normally this is where our story would end; but there's more. I arrived home later that day. I decided to give my new Mega Stuff Oreos a try. I opened the package and took out one of the overstuffed cookies. I took a bite and...Too much stuff! If there is one thing that I would say I am now extremely passionate about concerning food, I would say that it would be that Mega Stuff Oreos have too much stuff. Never in my life have I said that an oreo had too much filling, but that was before mega stuff. There are many of those reading this, I would indeed not doubt most, that may think such things as, "you're exaggerating" or "it can't be that much stuff". To those people who may think this way, I implore you to listen to reason. I was once in your shoes. It is too much stuff for one human to handle.

On an unrelated note things are going pretty well here. It's been in the high 80's, low 90's and that is considered the worst that it will ever be here so I'm not even mad. We were able to teach a few new people this week. Which is always good. It's been a little tough to find people to teach in this area so it's nice to see that our efforts are beginning to pay off.There's a gentleman we've taught a few times named John. He's very good friends with a few members of our ward. He's a very involved member of the church that he attends but is very nice and respectful. We stopped teaching him a few weeks ago because it seemed like he was just talking to us because he thought we were nice guys. Nevertheless, we talked to a member that he is friends with yesterday at church and he received a very interesting message from John. John expressed that he was confused as to why we stopped visiting him and he was saying that he really enjoyed the conversations we had about doctrine. It came as a bit of a shock to us. We were so glad that we were able to get through to him a little bit. Even if it was something as little as him saying that he enjoyed discussing doctrine with us, we were able to see that we were bringing the spirit into his life. We were so grateful that John had member friends who he could contact. Otherwise, we would have had no way of knowing that he still wanted to meet with us. Now, I'm not 100% sure if this means that things will begin to progress with John, but I do know that we helped him feel the spirit and increase his faith, That's honestly enough for me.Sometimes trying to do missionary work as a non full-time missionary can be like Oreos. While the creamy filling that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be delightful when put on the chocolaty, crunchy, foundation that comes from being raised in a good family, too much pushing or pressuring can cause the partaker to be overwhelmed, wanting nothing to do with that Oreo. Remember that the Lord works "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little." (2 Ne 28:30)I cannot manage to go a week without expressing my gratitude for each of you and for your love and support. I love each of you and pray that the Lord will bless you in each of the things that you need. 

With love,
Elder Sanderson

Week of September 1st, 2013

Herro friends and family,

This weeks been pretty cool. My son and I killed it this week. His name is Elder Roe. He's one cool cat that's for sure.

On the real though, it's been kind of tough. Isaac got baptized so we don't know what to do with ourselves. We've been trying super hard to find new investigators but it's been tough. We did have the chance to teach a 100% Japanese woman. Well, we didn't really teach because she doesn't speak much English but we did have a member of our ward who served his mission in Japan come teach her. It was one of the more gangster things that I've ever been a part of. We didn't really know what was going on because, as some of you may know, I don't speak a dang lick of Japanese. But other than that I understood pretty much everything.

It's been hotter than usual here. It got up to 97 which never happens here in perfectweathervlle. Things are good though. The members are awesome, someone bought us Subway, and we got 3 or 4 new missionaries who are all baller status basketball players so mission life is good. 

I love you all. Each and every one of you. Keep it realz.

PEACE!

Elder Sanderson