Props for the Pass-along Card

Hey Mom!

To all y'all waiting for my rap email to drop, you'll be happy to know that I'm working on it and have made some good progress with it. It probably won't be ready for another couple of weeks as I try to finalize everything, but it's coming! #CountdownToDrake And to those who don't know what the heck I'm talking about, my mom sent an email to me a couple of weeks ago totally hating on Drake, so I've decided to back my man Drizzy up with a killer email coming out in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned! #CountdownToDandy

Just sayin' though, that is some garbage that the Sisters in Monument could go the boys' hockey game, totally not fair in the slightest! There is a junior team here in Bloomington called the Thunder, and the Elders Quorum is going to the game, but the odds of us being allowed to go are very slim.

We did some more awesome service this week, Elder Bennett and I set up a group service project for all 10 missionaries here in the Bloomington/Normal area, and on Friday, all of us went into this warehouse and sorted out and labeled cans of food, and we put together bags of beans, it was a lot of fun. We worked alongside a small group of volunteers from a local Target, and the place we did the service at made a sign that said, "Welcome Target & LDS Missionaries," so that was pretty cool! Elder Bennett and I also went back to the WACC and put together more bags of food there for those in need. It's been pretty cool, because we've started to build a really good friendship with some of the workers there--now we're talking, and they ask us about what we do as missionaries, it's been pretty cool! We also got a snowstorm this week, getting 4-5 inches of snow, so we were able to shovel it for one of the members in our ward. Unfortunately, it's warmed up to the high 30s, so it's all melted away now...

Bri was at church this week, even though she was sick, so that was awesome! The Albrechtsens (our awesome Ward Mission Leader and Relief Society President) had a group of about 8 kids from ISU come over for dinner on Thursday, including Bri, four less-active members, and three active members as well (besides Elder Bennett and me), so that was pretty sweet! We've been seeing a lot of good success lately with the college kids down here, and we've been in contact with the institute teacher to try to recruit more as well, but even better than that, Elder Bennett and I discussed it and felt like we could get a YSA group going during the 3rd hour of church. We ran the idea past Bishop, and he was all for it, so hopefully we get that group going in the next couple of weeks.

Here's the cool story of the week: So Elder Bennett and I went to Panda Express with the Normal South Elders for lunch one day after service. I've been trying to hand out a pass-along card to the people that ring me up at the register lately, so I did at Panda and didn't think too much about it. About 30 minutes later, we get a text from our bishop telling us that one of the workers at Panda had called him and told him that we'd been there and that one of us had left their bag. It turns out that it was my bag at Panda, so we got it back, but that wasn't the cool part of the story. The cool part of this story is that I didn't have any form of identification or contact information in my bag, so the ONLY possible way that the worker could contact us is by going to mormon.org (this is where that pass-along card came in handy) and figuring out the contact information for the local bishop. So to all you people out there, you never know how far a little pass-along card can go.

Sorry I don't have a lot of cool things to report on this week, I did get to drive the trailer 300 miles, but that was the only crazy thing that really happened. Hopefully I've got some good stuff to talk about next week--we've got to pick up a couch for the Sisters in Pontiac this week, so maybe I'll have another good story to tell next Monday! I'll send pics of the apartment next week, we haven't finished our interior design yet.

Love you all, hope that you're doing well! 

Love,
Elder Dallas Anderson
#NothingWasTheSame (That's from Drake, BTW)

Finding the Believers and Freezing the Bedbugs

What Up!

So it was a great week here in the land of Normal! We'll start it off by talking about Bri, and how awesome she is: so she was at church this week, and she told us that she might be able to hook us up and get us onto the indoor practice field at ISU, which would be legit! Brother Silvey (Bri's soccer coach at ISU) had us over for a lesson, and he was fantastic during the lesson! Bri brought up a concern about how her family probably wouldn't be too thrilled if she got baptized, and he threw it down and said that she wasn't one to let fear get in the way, and at some point she would have to decide to stand up for herself and her beliefs or let her family dictate all of her decisions. It was an awesome lesson, and Bri's come a long way just since the time we Skyped her a little while back!

We were able to get involved with three different services this week: two of them were food pantries, where we either sorted and organized the food, or helped distribute it to those that are homeless, and the other one we sorted clothing that is going to be sold in a thrift store (possible Macklemore video coming soon). We met some really awesome people, and Elder Bennett and I have set up two different service projects for the 10 missionaries in the Bloomington/Normal area in the next couple of weeks, so I'm super excited for that!

Transfer calls were Saturday, and Elder Bennett and I are staying together, and only 3 missionaries are leaving the zone, so we'll pretty much have the same zone as this last transfer, which makes me super excited! It's currently 7 degrees outside (feels like -10 with wind chill), and Elder Bennett and I have to hook up a trailer to our truck so that we can drive to Joliet tomorrow for transfers with all of the luggage for the missionaries in the two Peoria stakes. I'm kind of wondering if the Lord put me in this area because he knew I could drive a truck...

We've been doing some good finding on the ISU campus now that school is back in session (I have the idea to start a hashtag on campus--which I think would be pretty sweet, and would catch on, but I'm going to run it by President first to see what his thoughts are). If you didn't know, ISU has the largest co-ed dorms in the U.S. One of the co-ed dorms has two towers that are both 25 stories tall filled with different dorm rooms. My companion and I snuck into that building this week, went to the top floor, and started doing some tracting. It was pretty weird, because there are tons of kids in the hall that just watch you tract, and I don't know if we'll do it again or not (if we even are able to get in again), but it was cool to say that we did it!

I had the chance to go on exchanges with one of the Spanish Elders this week, and we had a few lessons that day that were in 100% Spanish, so Dallas was just sitting around trying to follow the scriptures and lessons in English on his iPad, bc he doesn't know Spanish. #ComoSeDiceWorthless Anyways, we get to the last lesson (also all in Spanish), and there's this 2-year-old that's running around throwing his toys and making noise. So I say to myself, "Forget the lesson, I ain't helpin' there anyways! I'mma go play with the kid and try to keep him quiet!" So while the lesson's going on in the kitchen, I'm in the living room playing peek-a-boo and playing cars with Hector (the 2-year-old). We played for about 45 minutes until the lesson got over, and he was laughing and kept quiet the whole time! It was definitely a win-win situation: the investigator didn't have to feel super awkward with me just sitting there, I didn't have to feel super awkward just sitting there, and I got to play cars with a little kid! Freakin' legit! #ComeSeD...ForgetThatImPlayingWithCars

If you read my last email, you heard about the crazy couch-moving experience. This week, we didn't move any couches, but Elder Bennett and I were driving, and we saw a couch sitting on the side of the road (that's where people leave things for other people to take or the city picks it up as trash). We got out and examined it, because we kind of wanted a new couch for our apartment, and it is pretty legit--two recliners, cup holders, the whole shebang! So we load this thing into our truck and go to dinner, where we had the member do a little research for us on what temperatures are sure to kill any possible bed bugs (yes Mom, you'll be happy to know that I thought it out that maybe it was on the side of the road for a reason, I didn't just say it was a score immediately). We learned that bed bugs die after exposure to subzero temperatures for 2-3 days, and guess what? With wind chill, it's felt below zero since yesterday morning, and we've kept the couch outside all day and all night yesterday, and all day and all night today, so we've scored ourself a killer couch!

I'll let my swag do the rest of the talking for this email: check out the legit Bulls joggers (along with matching Bulls tee and Bulls beanie)! I've got more picks of swag coming in the future, but I thought the couch photo and the joggers pic might overload everyone with too much style, so I'll keep it there for this week.

Love,
Elder Dallas Anderson

#MrBrightside

White Snow, White Boyz, and Big Couches

Hey Mom!

We haven't had the chance to see any of the potential investigators that we found last week unfortunately. The cool thing is that ISU started up again today, so we should be talking to a TON of college kids now, which gets me stoked! Speaking of college kids, Bri got home from break yesterday, and came straight from the airport to church! She didn't even go home to change, because her flight was delayed for 2 hours, so she just came in her soccer sweats and sweatshirt! #NoShame

We got our second snow of the year this week, and a member offered us a snow-blower to use to help other people, but we had to turn it down, because Dad wouldn't get us a snow-blower, so I didn't know how to use one...Just kidding, we actually didn't get offered a snow-blower to use, Dad should just get one for the future. We did get the chance to go around and shovel like 7 driveways though, which was a lot of fun! Also, so going back to the point where it is easier to get a job than it is to get service, after hours of searching, Elder Bennett and I FINALLY dug up some good service places, and so hopefully in the next couple of weeks we'll be able to start doing some weekly service projects! This week we painted the interior of a house for service, so that was pretty cool.

Also speaking of service, the Bloomington 1st Elders asked us to help move a member of their ward from their house to a 2nd-story apartment. Everything in the move went well, but they had a HUGE couch that was so big you couldn't angle it in the hallway upstairs to get it into the door of their apartment. So after a lot of thought and different strategies, we decided to take the couch back downstairs and outside, where three Elders lifted it up one story, and two Elders and myself, pulled it up and over the railing from them, then stuffed it through the sliding door of the apartment. It was a crazy experience, and it took us about 30 minutes to get that dumb couch inside, but we got it done just before it started raining.

It was zone training this week, and Elder Bennett and I gave an hour training on controlling your mind as a missionary and having effective lessons with active members of the Church. I'll send you a copy of the training presentation if you want to look it over.

One last rant for the week: I'm calling out my man Brockbank for his final decision on the #HeismanPose2k15 contest. That's Busch league. I deserve at least a "Everybody-That-Enters-Gets-A-Participation-Prize" trophy or something like that... 

I haven't had time to think about taking very many pictures with all that's been going on next week, but I'll get some to you next week. I told you on Christmas that we didn't have any ghetto in our area, but I spoke too soon: we found the hood this week, and I snagged a good pic! Let me know if there is anything that I can do for you!

Love,

Elder Dallas Anderson

#BoycottBrockbank2k16

Ya Boi in Bowling

Hey All!

Last Monday, there was a crazy storm in the area, it destroyed lots of the trees in the area. So the streets are lined with broken branches because everyone just puts their branches on the curb and waits for the city to come around and pick up their trash.

This week was a pretty slow week as far as proselyting goes, we didn't have any lessons unfortunately. The good news is we found about 7 potential investigators, and we gave Books of Mormon to four or five of them, so hopefully we can have a lesson with them this upcoming week. It should get busier for us starting next week, because college starts up again next Monday.

Here's a pretty cool miracle for the week: so we decided to have a zone fast on Sunday, and Steve had called us Saturday night and told us that he had work, so he wouldn't be able to make it to church. With it being the New Year, the starting time of church switched from 8:30 to 11:00, and when we got there, the Elders in the other ward told us that Steve had been there! I'm super stoked for this upcoming month, I think the zone is going to see a lot of cool miracles from the fast!

To build zone unity even more than the fast, we had a zone activity today, and we decided to go bowling! It was tons of fun--the bowling alley was on the ISU campus, and it's really nice, and pretty cheap too! They have pool, ping-pong, and air hockey tables that you can pay an hourly fee for, so we played some pool too. Of course, you already know that Elder Bennett and I dominated on the pool table, and ya boi beat everyone in the zone at bowling too. But could you ever expect different? #MrClutch

New Years wasn't anything too exciting, but we did go to MLC (Mission Leadership Council) to talk about the needs and concerns of the missionaries in each of our zones. It was a really good meeting, President Griffin does a really good job getting everybody involved and excited about the discussion. But 2016 is going to be sweet, I think a lot of good things are going to be happening in the mission!

I've been able to find a couple of good things with after Christmas sales--I got a pair of cool chinos at PacSun this afternoon, and had an awesome conversation with Tyler (the manager there) about religion. I also got a cool pair ISU sweats last week, along with a Bulls beanie! I'll have to send you some photos next week! 

That's about all that I've got for this week, I'll give my boy Brockbank the S/O now for picking me to win the #HeismanPose2k15 contest. Sorry y'all can't handle my swag. I love you guys, and hope that your New Year has been good so far!

Love,
Elder Dallas Anderson
#Makin2016Count

The Most Wonderful Call of the Year

Hey Mom!

I'm glad that everybody liked my Christmas sweater, I thought it was a sweet choice too! It was good to talk to you all for a little bit, even though the video feed wasn't working on my iPad for most of it (#TechProblemsTechEldersCantFix). Yes, I even tried resetting my iPad, if you were going to tell me to try that next time. 

The day after Christmas was super cool--so Jose was getting baptized in the Naperville YSA Ward, and one of the mission rules is that you can attend baptisms, but you have to get a member to drive you, you can't drive the mission car. Being Christmas weekend, all of the members in Normal were out of town or had family in town, so they were busy. So on Friday night, we weren't planning on attending, but who would come to the rescue but SCOTT BOSWELL HIMSELF! I couldn't even believe it, that man is a saint. Like I had mad respect for him before, but when he's like, "Yeah, I'll come pick you up and take you to the baptism tomorrow" (keep in mind, Normal is like an hour-and-a-half drive each way from Naperville), I couldn't even believe it. That man deserves a special place in heaven! I could go on and on, but Scott Boswell is a stud! 

Jose's baptism was super long, because the font drained like 3/4 of the way by the time the opening exercises were over, so it took another half hour to fill the font back up part-way, and Elder Campbell had to get him pretty low in the water to immerse him completely. Scott took us back down to Normal after the baptism, and we had a really good conversation with him about missionary work!

Steve is doing really well, we taught him once this last week. We also had a Skype lesson with Bri, who is a college student at ISU that has some real potential! I'm excited to meet her in person when she gets back from Christmas break! 

The members here in Normal are amazing, we were taken care of for dinner every day this week. The Ringer family had us over for dinner, and it was really cool, because it turns out that they called all of the missionaries' moms and asked them about favorite foods and Christmas traditions that their families had before their mission. A couple of the things the Ringers did for me specifically were put together a Christmas puzzle (a tradition my family always did before my mission) and drink sparkling cider. Other foods included turkey, pork, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green jello, salad, rolls, pie, and hot chocolate. It was a really good meal, and we sang Christmas carols together after dinner, and read the nativity story as well. The Ringers have a SWEET train that goes around their Christmas tree, something Landon would really like--there's even a Lego village that's part of the train set too!

As far as member missionary work goes, I wish members would realize how great doing the little things for missionary work really is! Like when Scott took us to the baptism on Saturday, we went to lunch afterwards, and when they handed his change back, he gave the lady a pass-along card. I mean, maybe she'll look at the card, and maybe she won't, but you never know where the card might end up, and who will be effected by it. If every member could just give out like 1 card a week, the amount of baptisms that missionaries see every year would go way up, I'm sure of it.

I love you all, and it was so good to hear from all of you guys! I'll talk to you all again soon, hope you have a great new year! I'll be celebrating by going to bed at 10:30!

Much love,
Elder Dallas Anderson

#NormalLife

Twas the Week Before Christmas

Hey Mom!

I'm glad that everyone made it home safe, although I'm a little sad that I won't be able to meet Breven. That's cool that his last name is Bennett too, must be a good last name! I did receive a December care package from you, thanks for sending that, I appreciate it! Who were all of the people that helped put that together?

Our week was pretty good, we've been able to get in and have a lot of lessons with active members, which is really good, because 99% of the time, the most solid investigators that the missionaries teach come from members' friends, neighbors, family, etc., so we're trying to get the members involved doing missionary work. We also taught Steve again this week, and he came to church on Sunday, so he's doing a really good job! We'll meet with him again tonight.

At church yesterday, we sang in the ward choir, which was a real challenge, because I'd never heard two of the songs before, and they were dang hard! We only had two practices before our performance (at least that the missionaries went to), but I thought it went pretty good for that little of practice.

It finally got cold enough this week to where I had to break out the thermals (in the 20s), but it's warmed up again, and is supposed to be in the 50s all this week. I think I've given up any and all hopes for snow at this point...

For the mornings, our regular schedule is 6:30--arise (we actually get up around 5:45 so that we have more time to work out in the mornings); 7:00--breakfast/prepare for the day; 8:00--personal study; 9:00--companionship study.

Exchanges went pretty well this week, especially the first one (with the exception that in the first exchange, a member had a friend over that only wanted to bash with us, and my companion on the exchange was arguing back quite a bit, so I had to get him to calm down). The second exchange was a little tougher, because it was with a missionary that is pretty closed off--all of his responses are like 3-word sentences, so it's hard to have any type of conversation and hard to get to know him, but oh well.

We have a Christmas party tomorrow, and the Assistants asked me to MC, so any jokes you've got would be much appreciated. I'll be honest, being a missionary MC is going to be tough, because usually you can make fun of the acts and the people performing a little bit, but that's probably frowned upon in the mission lifestyle, so I've got to figure out how to be humorous somehow. But that shouldn't be the hardest thing in the world, I got jokes for days!

Well Mom, I'm super excited to talk with all you guys on Friday, that will be super exciting! I'll probably have some questions for you then, I don't really have anything as of right now. Thanks for all that you do, I love you all!

Love,
Elder Dallas Anderson
#GreatestTimeOfYear

Is Life Normal in Normal, IL?

S/O to my boi Landon on his bday!

Hey there!

Normal, IL jokes for days, yeah, they were old before I got here, LOL. But Normal itself is awesome, I love it! The members (we serve in a family ward, there isn't a YSA ward in the Peoria Stake) are exceptional, and we've got a full meal calendar for the next few weeks. Our ward mission leader's name is Howie, and he is hilarious! He is one of the best member missionaries you've ever met in your life, and he knows how to take care of his missionaries.

So from what I've heard, all of the investigators that we met with in Naperville are doing great! There were four of them at church yesterday, and Jose is still on date for December 26th for his baptism! I'll be sure to keep you in on the loop as much as I can.

My new companion is Elder Bennett, and he's from Spanish Fork. He's been out for about 17 months, and is a really hard worker and is exceptional at giving group trainings. He's also really good at finding ways to serve other missionaries, so it's going to be an awesome transfer working with him! We live in an apartment a few blocks from ISU, and I'll be sure to send you some pics this time, because we have some legit decorations up in our apartment! We'll teach everybody that lives in our area, with the exception of those that speak Spanish, because the gift of tongues is not real for Dallas.

Our zone training meeting went really well, especially considering the very little time we had to prepare for it. The mission is currently focusing on making the hours between 6:30-10:00AM more effective, and the new push has gotten a lot of the missionaries excited, so I'm really stoked to see all of the miracles that come out of it!

For the responsibilities that zone leaders have, I'll tell you as much as I know, because I'm still trying to figure it out myself, haha! So we are to conduct exchanges with all of the Elders in the zone once a transfer, which means about two exchanges per week. We have a zone training or zone conference each month at which we present and go over the goals of the zone for the current month and the month previous. We also call each of the companionships in the zone once a week to see how they are doing and help out with any struggles that they are having.

That's all I've got for this week, you'll have to let me know if there is anything that I can do for any of you! I love you tons, and pray for you guys all the time. Can't wait to hear from you next week!

Love,
Elder Dallas Anderson
#GreatestTimeOfYear