August 19, 2013

Sanderson Family,                                                                                         8/19/2013

Happy Anniversary mis queridos padres! That's pretty neat haha. Glad you had a fun time in Jackson Hole and I hope Nate was paid extra for his sacrifices. Before I forget my address is, (Elder Sanderson 902 Chinese St. #6 Edinburg, Tx) I don't know the zip code but I am sure you can Google it. The only thing is that transfers are next week and I have no idea if I am staying or not so if you send something just send it to the mission office until after transfers. If you want you could still send your letters by mail, its always nice to get letters throughout the week. haha um you can come pick me up if you want....the only thing is that it will be really hot and personally I would like to come back later in like December or something, maybe take some recent converts through the temple! Do you remember Mandy and Luke? I just got a letter from them and they are preparing to get sealed in the temple soon! So proud of them!

This week was pretty slow, we didn't have much time to work in my personal area because we have been having some problems in the other companionships that needed to be fixed. Some less-active who thinks he is a  witch doctor in the sisters area like keeps following them around and supposedly casting spells on them. Super weird but crazy creepy stuff started happening to them so President came with me to fix the problem. We sat down and were teaching him and President handed him the Book of Mormon and he wouldn't even touch it...super weird. It wasn't like he didn't want to touch it, but that he was afraid to touch it. Anyways we demanded that he leave them alone and he refused so President rebuked him which was pretty intense and then I gave all the sisters blessings...pretty intense stuff. But they are all safe and doing great so that is good. The elders in my area got into a car accident but luckily everyone was fine, I spent a day in McAllen with them meeting with a church representative about the accident and then went to a medical appointment with one of the elders and gave a few blessings to some members there.

Thursday I went on an exchange though with Elder Folsom one of the Zone Leaders and we had a really successful day in my area. We found this woman, Hermana Salinas, whose husband passed away this past December, she broke down into sobs when she answered the door and saw it was us. She explained that she had been going from church to church for almost 8 months looking for the simple answer of where her husband now was. Moments like these make me so grateful for the Book of Mormon and how it contains the fullness of the gospel. I bore powerful testimony that we had the answer to her question and so she allowed us to go inside. we read with her some verses from Alma 40 and how righteous souls are now in a state of rest and paradise. she grabbed the Book of Mormon and hugged it as though it was a precious treasure and said that she had not felt such peace in so long. We taught her about God's plan for us and that if she wanted to be in that state of peace with her husband again she needed to do certain things while on this earth. She accepted to be baptized on the 15th of September! Definitely a miracle that confirmed my faith in the Book of Mormon. I've learned to use it a lot more effectively now that I am out here on my mission.

Love you all so much,

Elder Sanderson

Texas McAllen Mission