Christmas Countdown Alert

To those who have asked about sending Christmas packages to Elder Dallas, first—Thank you!

Second, the mission office has requested holiday packages arrive by December 5 (I know, right?!) clearly marked with CHRISTMAS on the address label. All the missionaries will gather for a Christmas party where they'll all open their presents together. 

We don't know when this party will be, so just be aware that if you do send a package after December 5 and/or do not mark it CHRISTMAS, it may not be part of this celebration.

Thanks for your good wishes and prayers! 

Playing the Zone (a missionary's Thanksgiving)

Zone Conference at the Temple, in Miniature Photography
(Elder D is front and center -- use your magnifying glass)

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody:

So I'll start by answering your questions about my zone, just so I don't forget. My zone leaders' names are Elder Staheli and Elder Payne, and they are stationed in Ottawa. My district leader's name is Elder Adams, but he's being transferred this week, so I don't know who the new district leader is yet. The district leader stays in Morris. 

We had one zone conference a couple of weeks ago, and it was fantastic. President Fenn speaks at all of them, and there are few people that I've ever heard that speak with as much power as he does. He kind of reminds me of a coach in some ways, because he'll raise his voice, point his finger, shake his fist, and sometimes even pound the table for emphasis. He's got so much fire in him, and I've really learned a lot from him so far. 

I've been on 4 exchanges so far: once with Elder Adams in Morris, once with Elder Pike (my current zone leader that is being replaced by Elder Staheli) here in Bourbannais, once with Elder Clark (last Saturday, a man that Elder Clark's companion and Elder Engler baptized went through the temple, so they went to that and Elder Clark and I went proselyting), and with Elders Blackner and Dickerson (President Fenn always takes assistants that are going home out to dinner, so Elder Engler and Elder Ward, who is training the two new assistants, went out to dinner, and I did some proselyting with the assistants). 

We take members out to lessons as often as we can, but unfortunately, they fall through a lot of the time. Speaking of which, we didn't teach a single lesson this week, which was too bad. We saw Kendall and Jermaine, but neither of them had time to sit down (although they still seemed interested, which is good), and none of our other investigators or potential investigators returned our calls or our texts, and weren't home when we stopped by. But we're working hard, and we keep finding people who are interested, so hopefully we'll start putting some people on date soon and teaching some lessons.

I'll have to write you next week about my new companion. I'll miss Elder Engler. He's taught me a lot and given me so much insight on how to be a good missionary. He's worked hard every day, and he's not "trunkie" at all, which makes it really easy to go out and work.

Happy Thanksgiving to you! It sounds like you'll get a little bit of time to relax, which is great. The Relief Society President and her husband are having us over for dinner, which will be great. And after that, we're driving up to Downers Grove to hear a fireside from President Fenn, which I'm stoked about.

I love you all and I'll talk to you again next week!

Elder Dallas Anderson

Cold city. Fired-up fireside.

Hi everybody:

Snow, huh? It's been freezing here too, it hasn't climbed above 30 this whole week, and the humidity and wind chill don't help either. It's currently 21, but it's super windy, and I would guess it probably feels closer to 10-11 degrees...

I just opened the boots and socks for my birthday, and everything is great, so thanks so much for that! Unfortunately, I haven't received another package, but I go up to the mission office next week because Elder Engler is going home, so I'll probably have a chance to pick it up then. Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa C for your birthday package, that was very kind of you. I'm excited to make a good cake soon, and I'll be sure to think of you when I do! Thanks for the Christmas countdown calendar too, I know I'll put that to good use!

This week had some ups and downs. Elder Engler and I found a new family to teach after we were prompted to knock on a specific house, and they let us right in and told us we could come back to teach them more, so that was great! We also were able to teach an investigator named John again, and he's progressed a long way since the first time we met him. 

Also, President Fenn came to the Bourbonnais ward to give a fireside talk, and it was awesome. He speaks with so much power, it's like he's a sports coach firing his team up before a big game, only he's talking about the gospel. It's great. Unfortunately, Jermaine fell off date, because we weren't able to see him this week. We weren't able to teach Raoul either, because he's been out of town and he works a lot. If you could just keep them in your prayers, that would be great, because we don't want to lose them.

Anyways, I love all of you, and I can't wait to hear from everyone again!

Elder Dallas Anderson

Short and Sweet...

Hey!

So Jermaine, one of our investigators, accepted to be baptized this week and set a goal for December 6th. He's really excited about the concept of getting baptized--he really wants to follow Christ, and he told us he wants his whole family -- his fiancee and his 8-yr-old daughter to be baptized as well, so hopefully he continues to have the burning desire to get baptized that he does now, and that Satan won't harden his heart. The rest of the week was pretty good too. We had dinner at a couple members' houses, we also had a lot of success seeing less active members of the ward this week, and we got 3 of them to come to church on Sunday, so that was awesome! 

This morning, we went to the Chicago Temple, and it's just fantastic. It was a really cool experience, because we went as a zone, so there were like 20 missionaries in the session. I'll attach a picture with my district and with my zone.

Hopefully the Avs start to turn it around, but I'm glad the Hawks are doing well. And hopefully D-Rose gets healthy and stays healthy for the rest of the year!

Love you, your emails always make me smile. I can't wait to hear from you again soon!

Elder Dallas Anderson

Knock and It Shall Be Opened Unto You...

A big thanks to everyone who created a golf ball/door knocker for Elder Anderson's birthday! The contributions were impressive—and creative. 

Golf balls sported original artwork, came in the form of a lathed football, bore an uncanny resemblance to Elder Anderson, dressed up as a Disney Princess, and included "Knock Knock" jokes. There were even "exploding" golf balls for Elder A to secretly gift his companion. 

Thanks for making an Elder's birthday bright!

Tracting Gets Trey: 3 Investigators (Plus Apartment Pics!)

November 3, 2014

Hey family!

So this week has been really great here in Kankakee; we came across three new investigators from tracting! The first investigator's name is Kendall. He isn't the smartest guy you've ever met, but he seemed to understand everything we taught, and he also recognized the importance of proper priesthood authority (which according to Elder Engler, is pretty rare). 

The second investigator's name is Jermaine. We had actually knocked on his door the day before, and no one answered, but we felt prompted to go knock again, and he let us right into his house (which is also very rare). We taught him the Restoration, and also the Plan of Salvation. It really hit home with him, because he has a daughter that's 8 and a baby boy that's about 6 months old. Jermaine said he had been praying to know what church he should raise his kids in, and that we were an answer to his prayer. 

Our last investigator that we met this week is Raoul. We talked to him about the Restoration and a little bit about the Plan of Salvation as well. For someone that has never taken the discussions and has never been a part of the church, he has a really good background knowledge of our church. For example, he knew that the Book of Mormon came from gold plates and that Joseph Smith was the one who translated them. Raoul is a really sharp guy, and he understood the importance of proper authority from God too! Raoul also told us that he recently had an uncle who passed away that he wishes would have had the opportunity to hear the message we teach. We told him that the beauty of our message is that his uncle was learning exactly what we're teaching in the Spirit World, and Raoul seemed really comforted by that. We gave all of them a copy of the Book of Mormon, and we're following up with them later this week, so hopefully everything goes well!

The weather here is getting really cold. On Halloween, the temperature was around 38 degrees all day (32 at night), and I would guess with the wind chill factor that it felt around 26-27 degrees. Fortunately, there hasn't been any snow yet, although everyone is saying that this winter is supposed to be worse than last year, and last year's was apparently brutal.

I told Landon that I'm starting to become more and more of a Blackhawks fan, because there is Hawks gear everywhere. I might have to bring some of it home, because there is some awesome stuff! You'll have to let me know how the Hawks and Bulls are playing, because I know both of their seasons are just getting underway. How did the World Series end? I really liked your "Trivia Tuesday" email about the song Royals having an impact in both San Fran and Kansas City, Mom, it made me laugh.

Love you all, and I can't wait to hear from you!

Elder Dallas Anderson

Give Elder D a Bday Surprise

Family and Friends:

Elder Dallas has a birthday coming up--and here's a chance for you to participate if you wish.

Chicago winters are so cold, the missionaries can't remove their gloves to knock doors, so they carry a golf ball in their pocket to use as a "door knocker." And wouldn't you know it, Elder Anderson loves golf!

Here's where you come in: Decorate a golf ball to add to the collection we'll send him as part of his birthday package. Use paint, markers, stickers, glitter, whatever... just mail or bring your golf ball to our house by next Sunday, November 9. Be creative... (fun trumps practicality for this exercise.) We'll take a photo of the entries so you can see the great work before they're sent off to support the Great Work!

If you have questions, email or call Christy. Send or drop off your decorated golf ball (one per person, please) at the Anderson house. Be sure to include your name with the golf ball as part of the artwork or as a separate tag so he can know whose effort to appreciate. Thanks!

christy@andworks.com
801-898-2837
5661 Adaley Avenue
Murray, UT 84107