The Letter You'll Read Faster Than a Speeding Ronaldo

Hi all! 

We taught another lesson to George this week, and it was pretty much the same scenario from last week: he accepts Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, but thinks that everyone that is Christian (meaning believers of Christ) has the authority to baptize once they have been baptized. We don't see a lot of willingness to change in him, so we're going to give him another shot or two, but we might have to drop him this week. 

But on Tuesday, Elder Sonzini and I taught a man that we tracted into named Robert, who is a great guy, and is really humble. He's dealt with a lot of adversity in his life and is ready to turn it around, he just needs some help doing it. We've got a lesson with him on Tuesday, so definitely keep him in your prayers! Other than that, we got soaked on Saturday morning riding our bikes, changed clothes again at lunch, and then got soaked again in the afternoon, so that was fun!

Sorry this letter is so short, I had to get a haircut, the ATMs at the store weren't working so we had to wait in a LONG line. And we had a district game of soccer (which I totally owned. #YoungRonaldo #CallMeNeymar). 

Love you, hope you have a great week!

Elder Dallas Anderson

#FindingChance

#SwagWars (or Elder D Rocks the Socks)

Ayyyy from Chi-Town!

So before I get into the bulk of the letter, here's an update of the week: we were able to teach George twice this week, both times having our ward mission leader come out with us. The lessons both went well, we think that George is understanding most of what we teach, but he has a couple of points of doctrine that are hanging him up (probably because he's grown up 80+ years in a different faith, so he doesn't know anything else besides what he's been taught). We're working really hard with him, and we're trying to help resolve his concerns and prepare him for baptism! Besides George, we taught a guy named Zeferino, and the lesson with him was great! He told us that he would be baptized once he comes to know that the Book of Mormon is true. We're actually passing him off to the Spanish Elders in the area to teach him, because the rest of his family doesn't speak a lot of English, and it will be better if his whole family is taught, rather than just him.

We had a pretty cool experience at stake conference this weekend: our stake was reorganized, so Elder C. Scott Grow from the Quorum of the Seventy came out and presided at the meeting. For his instruction on Saturday night, he called up the ward council from the Naperville 1st Ward (where I'm serving), so we got to go up on the stand and introduce ourselves. He asked different members of the ward council a few questions on how they were involved, and Elder Sonzini (since he was the new missionary, and that's who Elder Grow asked to answer) got to explain a little bit about our role in the ward council. The other interesting thing that happened at stake conference is that Bishop Boswell got called to be the stake president, so we'll be getting a new bishop soon. I'm happy for him, because he'll do a wonderful job as stake president, but I'm a little sad, because we probably won't get to see him as much or work with him that often.

Anyways, this letter goes out to Elder Brockbank. In Brockbank's letter a few weeks ago, when talking about one of the kids he was teaching, he said, "The kid has more swag than anyone else I know. #SwagLife #PardonHisSwag" 

Woah, woah, woah, woah!!! Hold on now. Excuse yourself Brockbank, let's not forget who the REAL king of swag is. I'm defending that title.

Point #1: Swag doesn't stop, even on the mish. These socks should show you a thing or two about what swag really is. #RealSwag 

Point #2: Weather don't touch the swag. We were out tracting and riding our bikes in the rain yesterday. We were soaked from head to toe, but that didn't keep us from tracting or going to dinner at a member's house. To be honest, we probably looked like bosses walking up to different doors--kind of like the scenes from movies where the good guys are shown walking towards the camera in slow motion, but we probably looked better than that, TBH. 

Point #3: P-Day exemplifies swag. Lest you forget Brockbank that I don't get t-shirts that don't flow with swag. 

So you see Brockbank (and anyone else that questions my swag), that nobody can swag on my level. Don't even try.

Well people, let me know if I can do anything for you! I'd love to hear from you all! Send me emails of things you want tweets of, I'll be sure to get them out for you!

 

Young swaggin',
Elder Dallas Anderson
#PardonMySwag

Preaching to Pastors and Mismatched Pants

Elder Dallas with Sister and President Fenn and Elder Sonzini.

We had a solid week here in Chi-Town! Elder Sonzini and I taught a guy named George this week, and he's already read from the Book of Mormon and feels like it's true, we finna seein' miracles! The lesson with him went really well, and we have another appointment set up with him this week. We tracted into two pastors from other churches this last week, and had a friendly chat with them about our beliefs before quickly leaving the situation before it turned into a bash. We've decided though that someday we'll baptize a pastor or a preacher, because then they'll just bring their whole congregation to our church. 

We had to deal with some adversity this week as Elder Sonzini's bike tire popped on the way to see a less-active member. As a result, we were late to LaSonja's home, so the lesson went a little later than we anticipated, which in turn led to us being late to MCM, which meant we had to wear mismatching suit coats with the slacks we were wearing because we never had time to change, but that don't matter, our swag was still on point, haha! We had a great Zone Conference on Friday, where President Fenn taught us about the week leading up to Easter Sunday, which was very informative and moving. 

Saturday, we woke up to a crazy thunderstorm. There was constant thunder, and lightning would strike seriously every 2-4 seconds. It cleared up during the day, but then we were informed that there was a tornado alert, and we had to be prepared to get underground immediately. Fortunately, the tornado didn't come through town, so there isn't any damage for us to clean up.

I'm stoked to hear about Walker Ereckson getting his call out here, we reppin' the 801 in Chicago!

Love,

Elder Dallas Anderson

#FindingChanceTheRapper

Illinois Tornado

A large tornado struck a small town about an hour from where Elder Anderson is serving. We received an email from the mission home that all missionaries in the surrounding areas are fine. They will likely be providing service to the people in this community where there has been severe damage.

Thanks for your concern about Elder Anderson! Please keep him, all the missionaries, and the many people affected by these storms in your prayers.

Transfer News - Not!

This is an earlier message from Elder Anderson received while his family was out of town. His negligent mother forgot to post it sooner. Sorry!

March 31, 2015
For my week here in Naperville, we did a lot of tracting and finding new people. On Friday, we knocked into a woman who was babysitting some kids, and she didn't have a lot of time to talk, but she accepted a Book of Mormon, and we plan to go see her again this week! Hopefully we'll start being able to find a few people that are interested and start progressing in the gospel over the next week or two. 

On Saturday, Elder Sonzini, Elder Gibbs, and Elder Sorenson and I helped two of the senior sister missionaries move into a new place from their old apartment. It took a total of about 6 hours, there was so much stuff to move, and we had to fit it all into one trailer and bed of a truck, but we did it!

So we got our transfer news on Saturday: both Elder Sonzini and I are staying here in the Naperville 1st Ward, and I'm finishing his training, so nothing too new there! The big news for this transfer though is that we are being taken out of our car-share, so we won't have a car at all, it will all be on foot or on bike.

Love,
Elder Dallas Anderson
#FindingChance

The rebelliousness continues. Every minute with me is livin' on the edge. #WifeMe

#Biking Is Life

Hey from Chicago! 

First off, no, I still don't like biking, although it will be good for me because I won't get fat (hopefully). We have a couple of bikes that just stay here in the area that we are using, so I don't need to buy one. I'll be physically ready for a bike trip up St George's Bluff Street when I get home, but don't get your hopes up, it's probably not going to happen (unless it's a bullet bike, then sure). Funny but sad story, our first day on the bikes, Elder Sonzini's pants tore up the seam from the bottom of has leg to his knee, so that's brutal. He was a good sport about it though, and we should be able to get it fixed.

We had a Mission Conference yesterday at a forest preserve park, so it was kind of like you were in the Sacred Grove. It was really neat, because President Fenn told the story of the First Vision using Joseph Smith History, and he talked about a lot of the different things that we learn from the First Vision. After he and Sister Fenn taught for a couple of hours, they fed us lunch from KFC (it was a lot of chicken to feed 200 missionaries), and then we had a testimony meeting that was about 3 hours long. We were supposed to be done with the meeting at 4:00, but we didn't finish until 5:30, so that was pretty interesting.

Besides the Mission Conference, there wasn't a lot that was too exciting in our finding efforts this week, other than we did tract into another woman that we gave a Book of Mormon to, and we're planning to see her tonight. We haven't gotten back in touch with Gina yet, but hopefully she's interested in learning more. One of the best parts of the week though was watching General Conference! I learned so much from this Conference; a couple of my favorite talks were from Elder Holland (which pretty much told the story Brockbank and I had) and from Elder Pearson. 

I'll be on the lookout for this next package, although you might have to slow it down on the candy a little bit. It's so good, but I'm going to get fat if I just keep eating all of it! I never thought I'd say this, but could you maybe send some protein bars instead of 100% candy? 

I love you all, thanks for everything you do!
Elder Dallas Anderson
#FindingChance