Revelation!!!

Hey Everyone,

General Conference was amazing!!! So much REVELATION!!!! Isn't it awesome? Well, this week has been amazing. But first I had my first baptism!!!!! Chris was baptized!! He has the Holy Ghost and the Aaronic Priesthood. He is now in South Carolina right now and is leaving to Qatar in about 2 weeks for 3 months. He is trying to go to the temple before he is placed in Qatar. He was so ready for the gospel.

So General Conference. I love how they are really focusing on worshiping at home. I want to hear what all of you thought about general conference. If you didn't watch it, go back and watch it. If you did watch it, watch it again. It is amazing. Which talk was your favorite? Why? My favorite talk was Robert C. Gay's and Matthew L. Carpenter's talks. They are awesome. I really like Elder Gay's talk because he talked about how we can all become more like the Savior. I really like the part about trying to see others through God's eyes.

This week was mostly focused on Chris and General Conference. So not that long of an email. But it has been such a spiritual week. Well, I hope that you all loved General Conference as much as I did. I am very happy right now. I am loving the bikes. They are fun. My challenge this week is to pray to see others, especially those who you are angry or annoyed with, to see them threw God's eyes. I hope to hear what happens with this. I love you all and hope to hear from you all.

Con Amor,
Elder Andersen

Hurricane Rosa

Hola cada persona que recibe este correo electronico,

Cómo estáis? This week has been crazy! We have had so much happen! I am loving it out here and having a blast.

This week we had a blitz in our area!!! We have so many lessons these upcoming days. Just from the blitz alone, we have 22 lessons this week!!! It is so AWESOME!!! I hope that we are able to teach all of them. I also found this one guy named Jerry. He is so cool. He has a smoking problem and Elder Dudley hasn't even met him yet because every time I go over there I am on exchanges. He has a lot of potentials. I hope he gets far.

I HAVE MY FIRST BAPTISM THIS SATURDAY HOPEFULLY!!!! His name is Chris. We had his first lesson on Sunday. He has been in contact with the Temple Square sisters. I am excited!!! We are doing it between sessions of General Conference. I will send pictures next week.

Also, I can say I have now been through a Hurricane. Well, the butt end of a Hurricane. It was crazy. I would walk from my car to a door and I would look like I just went swimming. But I didn't go swimming. I swear. But I did go down a dry water slide.

Well, I made it through my first transfer and can say this is going to go by so fast. I am very excited for this transfer in the Valley. It is going to be awesome. I am doing so good. I am now on bikes so that is exciting.

This week's challenge is with general conference. I want you all to after General conference to take your favorite talk and send me the title and why it is and what you got out of it. I want to see your guys' point of view on some of the talks. I am excited to hear what all of you say. Keep sending me stories though.

Thank you all for all that you have done for. I hope to hear from all of you and to hear your spiritual experiences with conference. I love you all and can feel your prayers.

Con Mucho Amor,
Elder Andersen

Cold Front 2

Hey everyone!!!!!!!

How is everyone doing? I am doing fantastic! This week has been very fun. I have been able to talk to so many people. It has been so cool. Also, it has been cooler this week. It has only been like 101-103 and we are expecting 99 soon so I am ecstatic about that. I might have to start wearing a sweater or something.

Pues, this week I have learned a lot. I also had my kind of first baptism. Her name is Aurora. She has tons of energy but is very smart. The reason I say kind of is because she turned 8 and was baptized. But because she can't come to church on Sundays because she is with her dad on the weekends, we taught her. We conducted her baptism and everything. It was cool.

Then this week we did exchanges for my first time. It was fun. I went up to Brawley with Elder Hardy. Funny thing about Elder Hardy is that we met each other before the mission. When I went to my first Decathlon, he was also competing. Small world. But, it was cool to go out with him and meet some of the people up in Brawley. I was able to use Spanish a little bit up there with a lady who has a crazy story about how she became interested in the Gospel. She had a dream when she was in the hospital and in the dream she saw three white doors. She was able to go into two of the doors, but could not get into the third door, which was the biggest. She said that she knew two of them were Heaven and Hell, but could not explain the third door. Then the missionaries found her and taught her the plan of salvation and told her that the three doors that she saw were the Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial kingdoms. And that the door she could not open was the Celestial kingdom because she has not been baptized with the proper authority yet. She is awesome and has only a few more things to do before she is baptized. So that is a crazy awesome story!!

Also this week we had stake conference. Elder Miskin of the Area Seventy came. He taught that the Church is not a rest home for the righteous, it is a hospital for the imperfect. This means that the church is a place for people to come to repent and come closer to Christ. He also said that the best smell in a congregation is the smell of tobacco, because that means that someone is there that needs this message and needs the gospel to get closer to Christ. He also said that we need to go into the wilderness and bring back the one to the ninety and nine. The wilderness is wherever nonmembers or pre-members as we like to call them, and less active members are. He said that we all need to be that shepherd. And he pointed out that the shepherd didn't guide his sheep back, he carried him. That's what all of us need to do, we need to carry those people to church and help them as much as we can. Another thing he said is that if someone isn't at church, find out why. Make sure that we support each other in the church. If there are less active people in your wards or branches, go visit them and befriend them, invite them to church, if they say no that is ok. But don't just stop trying. Be involved in their life so that you are ready and there when they are ready for the gospel due to trying times or by whatever means God prepares them. Help them as much as you can. Everyone needs this gospel in their lives. It is the most important thing on the earth.

So this week my challenge is to go to a less active member or a pre-member and befriend them and when they are ready for the gospel, be there and invite them. It might be a long time, it might happen when you befriend them. Be patient. Help them and love them. Don't be afraid to talk to them. It is just like talking to any other person. Finally, make sure you pray for them. That is very important. Email me some experiences you have with this. I would love to hear them.

Thank you all for all you have taught me and done for me. Thank all of you who have written to me, and I would love to continue to hear from you. I would love to hear from those who have not yet written to me. I am loving it here and hope you all feel the spirit as much as I do!! I love you all.

Con amor,
Elder Andersen

Blitz Part 2

Hey everyone,

This week was awesome. We did so much. We still are finding a ton, but I love finding. It is so much fun, you get to talk to so many people. The funnest part is that going into a door here in El Centro, you don't know what language you are speaking, so it is always a toss-up. It is very exciting.

Well, this week we had a Blitz in Calexico and in the El Centro 2nd ward. It was awesome. In the 2nd ward Blitz, I found a sister named Vanessa. She has a son named Alex that has autism. I was so happy. We taught her a little bit of the restoration and she asked when and where the church is and she came! But it is kind of sad because the sisters that are teaching her told me that her husband doesn't what her to go right now.

In the Blitz in Calexico, I was able to find someone that was deaf, but she knew SSL, so it was very limited communication. Then her granddaughter came out and we had an amazing conversation. She is from Arizona and she wants us to tell the missionaries in Arizona.

The Hermanas got Gregory on a baptismal date! I am so excited for him. We just need to keep him coming to church and it will happen Oct 13! Once he is baptized I am going to try and communicate with the daughters enough to try and make appointments. After that President Stubbs told me that I can tell the ASL missionaries out here and go on exchanges with them. I hope we can get that far.

I am loving it here. I have been able to use my Spanish more and more. I feel like I am getting better, I hope. This week my challenge is to get a book of Mormon and give it to someone who you feel needs it in their life. I would love to hear about these stories.

Thank you all for all the support, encouragement, and prayers. I love hearing from all of you and hope to hear more. I am excited to meet so many people. I love you all and am excited to hear from you all.

Con Amor,
Elder Andersen

The Blitz

Hey Everyone,

How are all of you guys? I have had a blast this week. Last P-day seems like a month ago because of how many things we did. But at the same time, it feels like no time has passed at all. It has been amazing. Some sad things have happened, but more happy things have happened.

Some of the sad things are that we dropped Bertha. We went to her house again and she told us that she is Catholic and always has been and will be, but that she will always open her door for us but won't listen to our message. So that was kind of sad, but we did get un Libro de Mormon en su casa. So we are just planting seeds.

Some happy things that have happened:
1. We were able to find this one guy named Marco, who is a 19-year-old man that his high school math teacher, Brother Garcia, gave him a Book of Mormon and told him that if he read it that he would cook him a steak dinner. So we reopened that deal with permission of Brother Garcia. So we taught him and he seemed kind of interested. We told him to read and pray. Now we are just waiting for him to say when and where to meet him again.
2. We were able to give a blessing to an older woman from Brawley at 10:30at night. It was cool because we were able to talk to her grandson who is not a member. I think he thought that it was very cool that we came and stayed so late just for her.
3. Elder Dudley and I gave talks in the Spanish Branch. It was the longest talk I have ever given. It was 10 minutes long. It was a very fun talk to give because some of the congregation was asleep, the missionaries in the back were dying laughing and the branch president was making faces when I pronounced a word wrong. I was on the brink of dying laughing. It was hilarious. I did, however, get a lot of compliments on my Spanish afterward. It was good.
4. We ate dinner with the Ibarra family, which was Spanish speaking. They were so much fun. He has a crazy conversion story. He was baptized 4 weeks after he met the missionaries but was truly converted later. One Sunday he told someone he doesn't really have much faith in Christ. The next day he cut off his hand. He said that he had to have faith in Christ this whole time. He was rushed to the hospital in El Centro but they couldn't operate on him so they were going to fly him out but then realized that they had no helicopters so they drove him. That is a two-hour drive. So they finally were able to get to San Diego and were able to stitch his hand back on. He said that he got a blessing right before he left for San Diego and that he felt that everything was going to be ok. and it was now he still has his hand, but not a pinky, and can pass the sacrament every week.

My challenge this week is to pray and prepare a question that either you are wondering about or a question on how to get out or endure a challenge you are going through for general conference. In doing this I promise that when the prophet is speaking whether he answers it or the spirit answers it while is speaking. You guys don't need to write me on this one, but just send me a spiritual experience that you went through either this week or last week.

I love you all and love hearing from you all. I hope you are all feeling the spirit always. I hope to hear from you all and am excited about all the experiences that God has in store for me.

Love you all,
Elder Andersen

A Cold Front

Hola todos!!!!!!

¿Cómo les van? This week was so cool. A lot happened. I have done so much finding. I have learned a lot. I have had some good experiences and some interesting experiences. But I have grown and learned from these experiences.

So first, we did sooooo much finding!!! We are doing so much because we don't really have any people we are teaching, and the people we are teaching are missing in action. So, it has been really cool to see some people that are interested and some who aren't. We found this one lady named Bertha. She is super nice and has a lot of faith in God. She goes through a lot of physical pain and feels that this is her main trial right now. So we are excited to teach her more because she seemed interested. We are still finding and meeting new people every day.

Second, we were attacked by 6 rabid chihuahua which was fun. We aren't sure if it was Heavenly Father keeping us away from those houses or the devil. So yea. But Elder Dudley was ready to go at them with his book bag. We both lived thankfully.

Third, we are teaching a 7-year-old who is getting baptized in 3 weeks. Her name is Aurora. She is very sweet.

Fourth, we moved this older lady named Sister Heathman. It was fun and crazy. She had 2 refrigerators in one storage compartment. She also had about 50 chairs. It was very bamboozling. She was very nice though. Everyone was very nice and willing to help. I love it when we are able to do service for people.

We are now coordinating with the ASL missionaries to try and communicate with Olivia. I am really excited to see what happens with that. I am glad that I was called here so that I could meet her because if I wasn't called Spanish speaking, I would have never met her.

I am hoping we get more people we are teaching regularly and I think we have a lot of potentials. It is getting cooler here, it is only like 105 degrees. It is soo much cooler. We can like go outside and not die of heat.

So my challenge this week deals with service. Try and help someone. Offer to help someone outside. Stop by someone on the side of the road with their car. See if they need your phone or some assistance. But also if anyone offers you help, please accept. You are doing them a service by letting them serve you. Just try it. I would love to hear about you guys' experiences with this challenge. And it can go either way or both. Please help others. Show them Christlike love.

Thank you all for all the support. I hope to hear from all of you. I love hearing your stories and experiences. I love you all and feel your prayers. Keep having faith and serving.

Love,

Elder Andersen

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡San Diego!!!!!!!

Dear everyone,

This week was awesome!!!!! I am finally out in the field!!! I am in El Centro where it is 115° and dry. So just like home. I am loving it here, but before I get to El Centro, I will tell you about my last few days in the MTC. 

So it was sad saying goodbye to all of my teachers and friends I had made there. I hope them all well and hope to see them all again. Some things I learned in the last couple days were that we always need to be kneeling in our hearts and constantly praying. Also, we need to ALWAYS be trying to listen to the Spirit and be a tool in God's hand. Then we can help others come unto Christ always. The next thing is kind of the challenge so I will touch on that later. I am very happy I had the chance to stay at the MTC that long. I learned so much about the Gospel and how to teach it. I felt the Spirit more consistently than I have ever felt it ever. 

Then we went to the airport. It was kind of weird going into the real world again. Our flight was about 2 hours long and quite quick. It didn't feel that long. Then we arrived in San Diego! We met our mission president and his wife! They are so nice. President Stubbs is very funny. So we went to a church and had an orientation. 

Then we met our companions. My companion's name is Elder Dudley. He is amazing. He is from Michigan and he is a very hard worker. He is really good at getting to know people so people really like him. It has been cool to meet all of the people that he knows here. He is very fun and funny. He is going to be a great trainer.

So then we went to one of his old areas and stayed there because El Centro is too far to go there and back and there and back for the first-day training. We stayed in El Cajon with a Persian screaming in the room next to us. I love it. It was so funny. The next day we went to some people that Elder Dudley knew in the area and I got to know some of them. The next day we went to the Mormon Battalion Site. It was cool to go there again. Then we went to the mission office to get some supplies. I found out there that there are about 18 languages spoken here by missionaries and that doesn't even cover all the languages spoken here. I love that. If any of you know me well you know how much I love learning languages.

Then we went to El Centro, but before that, we met someone nicknamed Yoda. He lives in Descanso in the mountains. He is a very strong member and helps the missionaries. He has a bunch of random stuff and animals. He is breeding snakes right now which is where I am in the picture of me holding the snake. Then we came to El Centro. Also, we have a car. We also have the nicest apartment in the mission. So we started going to peoples houses. We have dinners almost every night and we get fed a lot. So I love that. We have already had given like three Book of Mormons away. But we do not tract much in this mission. We mainly work with the members and go off of referrals. So I have met a ton of people and am excited to get teaching. There is one person I want to talk about that we taught. So his name is Gregorio and he is not a member but is interested. We were about to drop him then I came. The reason I changed things is that he has two daughters that are Deaf. So I tried to communicate with them, but I am pretty sure they are learning Spanish Sign Language, ASL, and home signs and are mixing them together. So we are going to try our best and go for it. But it is very cool. My zone is awesome and we work together often so I am excited to get to know them also.

So the challenge of the week is when you guys are listening to anyone give a talk, whether it is from an apostle or a ward member, don't write down exactly what they talked about, write down what the Spirit teaches you during their talk. I would love to hear what happens with this.

I am excited to be in the field and meet so many people. I am glad that knowing ASL is helping me already. I am loving it here and am loving the experience. I love hearing from you guys and hope to hear more. For those who don't have my email, it is vaughn.andersen@myldsmail.net. I love you all and feel your prayers.

Love you all,

Elder Andersen

I am Here

I am here. My companion is elder dudley and my first area is el centro. We already went out and taught some people. It has been great. I love my companion and there are only two asl missionaries. I might also eventually learn aribic because there is an area where a third of the people speak aribic. I am great i am loving it and I love my companion and my president.

Elder Andersen

Final Week!!!!!!!!!

Hey Everyone!!!!!

This week has been awesome. I have had so many cool experiences. I have felt the spirit tons and am excited to leave on Tuesday. I have loved my time in the MTC or CCM in Spanish. I will miss the MTC but it is about time for me to start meeting the people God has prepared for me. 

Español es muy bien. Yo estoy apreniendo mucho cada dia. Me encanta mi maestros. Ellos aprendenme mucho. Elder Trump y yo estamos mucho mejor a Español. Nuestro TRC persona, Jessica, fue mucho interesado. Padre cosa pasado en nuestro final vez con Jessica, ella dijo que ella tiene un hermano con autismo y me dieron muy animado. Yo comencé a rodar mi testimonio sobre personas con necesidad especial. Yo dicho que me encanta esas personas y que yo los llamo angeles. Que me hizo feliz. Pues, me siento preparado para el campo cuando se trata de predicar el Evangelio.

Back to English. This week we had a seventy come and talk to us yesterday. It was amazing. It was Elder Patrick Kearon. He is British and a convert. He and his wife spoke. His wife talked about when we are on a mission, it is not a compatition, like everything has been our whole life. She also said not to compare yourself to any one ever because you conclude to be one of two things, superior or inferior. And that is not good. She said though that it is impossible not to notice if someone is doing better than you, like if someone is learning the language faster, that is just a fact. She then instructed us to not compare but to try and learn from those who are doing better than you and look at it like an opportunity to better yourself. Then Elder Kearon spoke and it was amazing. He was the perfect balance between fun and spiritual. He was a very good speaker. He talked about how all of the hard things we go through in life just make us stronger and that the church thrives on opposition. He also instructed us to choose to be happy when things get tough and that there is a reason why you are going through that challenge or trial. He also taught us to teach the Gospel with joy and be excited to teach it. He said "When you really think about the value of Baptism, you will want to give it to everyone you meet."

My challenge this week is to share your favorite scripture with someone who is not a member and bear your testimony to them about that scripture. you can do it in person, over text, or over social media. dont be afraid. just think about the true value of baptism. I would love to hear what happens with this challenge, so please write me.

I love you all and look forward to hearing from you all. I am excited for the field and if you guys have anyone you want me to look for in San Diego let me know this week. Thank you guys for all the prayers and for all of the support.

Love,

Elder Andersen

Charitable Acts

Dear everyone,

This week was a good week. I have felt the spirit a lot this week. I am very excited to get out in the field and get teaching. I have been learning so much about the gospel. Also I was able to go to the temple last week!!!!!!!!!! It was awesome. I love the temple!!! Go there often! You will be blessed immensely. The Provo temple is beautiful. i am excited to go back today.

This week at the devotional the relief society president spoke to us about patterns in our life. Which is good for us because everyday is the same so it was a good message. Make good patterns in your life such as reading your scriptures, going to the temple, and saying your prayers, and family home evening. Also president oaks daughter who is a world renowned violinist, came also and played with her kids who are extremely talented. It was really cool.

Spanish is going good. I am able to teach the first lesson in Spanish in under 3 minutes so that is cool. I am finally starting to be able to conjugate correctly. We had our last meeting with Fernando(at this time we had no idea that it was going to be our last time) but he left us with the question "why is the Holy Ghost a bird?" so that was interesting. Now we have Jessica who asks a ton of questions. But they are good questions.

Also elder McFadden is in my zone now so I am excited to help him along.

Finally my district is working on charity this week and that gave me the idea to give all of you a challenge every week to work on and I would love to here what happens because of that challenge. This week I challenge all of you to do something charitable. Our teacher gave a scripture on it. It is in Moroni 7:45-48. Go out of your way to help someone, say hi or just being nice.

I am excited to hear what happens with this challenge. Hope to hear from all of you. If you need my email, ask my mom. Have a good week and search for the spirit.

Love,

Elder Andersen

Hola Cómo Están???

This week was a fun week. A lot happened this week.

First I was called as district leader. This means I am my districts mailman and I conduct district meetings. I have such a good district. They are very fun.

This week was my first week of TRC. TRC's are when we are teaching a "person investigating the church" all in Spanish. We did so good. We surprised ourselves on how much Spanish we spoke and understood. It is kind of funny though our person investigating the church, his name is Fernando. Sometimes he just dozes off in the middle of the lesson even if we try and keep him involved. He is nice though. Also he told Elder Trump he doesn't sound like a Gringo.

My cousin Oliver arrived last week and he is in my same residence building!!!! It has been awesome to see him and I am happy for him. He has been doing awesome, and i am excited to hear from him. 

On Sunday I watched the talk "Recognizing the Spirit", another talk only shown here, and it was amazing. He said to "Quit worrying about if you are feeling the spirit or nor or if a thought is from the spirit or not," He said you don't need to feel an impression in the moment of revelation. He then said that as long as you be a good boy or girl, honor your covenants, and keep the commandments, that your steps will guided and that every good thought you get is from the Holy Ghost, even if you don"t feel some monumental spiritual experience. He gave three examples about times when he had a thought, but no spiritual feeling, and about 30 years later he figured out that it was a prompting from the spirit. So whenever you have a good thought or a strong prompting, listen even if you don't have a spiritual feeling, because it is probably from the spirit.

Lastly, this week at choir I was able to sit with the ASL missionaries and sign with them. I was so cool because I was able to sign all of the songs and watch the interpreter during the Devotional. Plus the interpreter, who was a fantastic interpreter, told me that there is a huge population of Deaf people in San Diego. He didn't know any that are LDS, but that's OK. It was nice to sign again, although now my whole zone is asking me questions about ASL and Deaf people. It was so much fun though.

This week was great. I feel the spirit so much and am excited to get out into the field. I hope to hear from all of you. I love you all. 

Love you all,

Elder Andersen

Second Week

Hello Everyone!!! This last week was very good. The MTC is amazing. I am learning so much Spanish. It is really cool to feel the Spirit so much. I have started doing Duolingo to learn common terms in Spanish. I am amazed how much Spanish we learn in so little time. I have decided that any Language teacher would love if people learned this fast. 

Cool thing happened this week. When we were coming back from exercise, a car broke down across the street and all of the missionaries on the other side of the street crossed the street to help push it. I was able to help push also. It was really cool. Also every Thursday we clean the buildings, which are amazing.

The gym is closed right now so we go out in the field and play spike ball and we are all getting really good at it. It is really crazy how good we are getting. Elder Trump and I play with our zone and we are very competitive.

I also found out that my roommate, Elder Andelin, his family owns the second biggest zoo in America that is in Virginia. It is called the Metro Richmond Zoo. So yea. That's crazy. He told us that after our mission, if I want to go, he can get us in for free.

I was able to sign with some of the ASL missionaries this week. I am hoping I will ASL on my mission a little bit. 

I also was able to watch some of the fireworks last night. It was cool. I was nice to see them.

I am excited to get out in the field and teach.

I hope to hear from you all and I love all the support, thank you.

​​

From

Elder Andersen

FYI: Elder Andersen's Dad put in the link to the Zoo

Week 1 MTC

Hello everyone!!! This was my first week in the MTC!!! It is amazing. I am having so much fun. I am definitely learning a lot of Spanish. I have felt the spirit a lot. I am very thankful for this experience.

My companion's name is Elder Trump. He is really cool. And he is not related to Donald Trump. He is from Centerville, Utah. He and I get along really good.

My district is very cool also! The elders are Elder Jennings, Elder Ashcroft, Elder Bott, Elder Andelin, and Elder Marra. The hermanas are Hermana Christly, Hermana Rodriguez, Hermana Ashworth, Hermana Ross, y Hermana Bristowe. They are all very very fun. My zone is also very fun. The Elders are very welcoming and fun. The zone leaders are nice also. Also we have a big papa(a elder) that tells us bedtime story.

Also excersize time is awesome. They have four square!!! Also p day has been fun. We have played spikeball during excersize time because the gym is closed for the rest of the month. Also the new buildings are beautiful. They have some murals on every floor that I will be sending pictures of later.On Sundaywe watched a talk by Elder Bednar titled "Character of Christ". It was amazing. If any of you serve a mission whether it be soon or later in your life, you need to watch that. It is only shown at the MTC's sadly.

Also M. Russel Ballard gave a devotional last night. It was amazing. He talked about Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith's relationship as brothers and companions. He talked about how their mother prayed before they went to carrthrige jail that she would be able to see them again. But then they were martyred and she started to ask God why he didn't answer her so God lifted the veil enough so that Joseph and Hyrum could talk to her and comfort her.

Also I am able to read emails at any time during the week. Also my address is 

AUG21  CA-SD
2005 N 900 E Unit 167
Provo UT 84602

I want to thank all of you for all of your support and hope you all write me sometimes.

From,
Elder Andersen

P.S. yo amo burbujas

Prepping for a Mission

Vaughn Leaves to the San Diego Mission in a week. He is getting packed and ready to go. He talks on Sunday, July 8, 2018. We take him to the MTC in Provo on Wednesday, July 11, 2018.

California San Diego Mission

Vaughn packing his bags

Vaughn Gets his Mission Call

Vaughn Keali'i Andersen has been called on a mission to California San Diego Mission. He will be speaking Spanish. He enters the Provo Mission on July 11, 2018. His mom is freaking out!

A video of him opening his call is at this link on Facebook. Vaughn opening his Mission Call