Piles of Pie and other Mission Delights

Hi everybody, and happy holidays! 

So for Thanksgiving, we ate dinner at the Beyers' house (Sister Beyer is the Relief Society president). We had turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, pie, brownies, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and asparagus (you'd be happy to know that I ate some). It was delicious! There were about 20 people there from the Beyers family, and then the sister missionaries were there as well, along with a couple families from the ward. 

The fireside at President Fenn's house afterwards was great, he taught us about gratitude and remembering the hand of the Lord in all our doings, and how it is one of the promises we make in our baptismal covenant. It was top-notch stuff! They had pie at the mission home afterwards, and the entire table was covered in pieces of pie. There were probably about 60-80 missionaries there, so it was packed! We'll have a fireside for Christmas, but it will be divided up into zones, so there won't be that many people there at the same time.

I wasn't able to go to the mission office at all this week, we had exchanges at the Naperville stake center. My new companion's name is Elder Olsen, and he's from Garland, Utah. We get along pretty well, so that's good!

We didn't get to see Jermaine or Raoul this week, but we did come in contact with Kendall, and we're hoping to meet with him again this week. Elder Olsen and I also taught a guy by the name of Shawntae, who is someone Elder Engler and I found, but we're never able to sit down with him. The lesson went pretty well: we taught him about the Restoration and he seemed to understand everything. I think the biggest issue Shawntae will have is with the word of wisdom, so be sure to keep him in your prayers. 

The highlight of our week was teaching Loretta on Sunday. We taught her about the Restoration and a little bit about the plan of salvation. She had a son that was murdered a while back, and she was having a really hard time with life, but she overcame that when she saw God's love for her. Loretta bore us her testimony that she knew God loves each and every one of us, and that He's there for us during our trials. It was a really spiritual lesson, and I hope she felt the power of our message. She happily accepted our reading assignment (2 Nephi 31), so please pray that she will read and that she will know that what we are teaching is true.

Also, I got assigned to speak in church on Lando's birthday, so I'll sent you a copy of my talk afterwards.

Thank you to everyone for the birthday packages, I really appreciate it! And remember:

Wise men still seek Him. He is the gift. #ShareTheGift

Love you all!

Elder Dallas Anderson

Chillin' in Chi-Town