Nicaragua Address

Elder Morgan Anderson loves getting mail, email and handwritten letters.  He may not always have time to respond back as his time is limited, but he loves to hear how everyone is doing. Each letter needs an international stamp.  Regular US stamps do not work.  A letter with up to 4 sheets of paper will need 1 international stamp.

His address in Nicaragua is:

Elder Morgan Monroe Anderson
Nicaragua Managua South Mission
De la Retonda del Periodista
150 vrs. al Sur Ofiplaza Suite 725
Managua, Managua
NICARAGUA

. Last letter from the CCM

                                                                                                                        August 30, 2014

Well I won’t lie this week has been a little rough. I got over being sick yesterday and now I am doing a lot better. Well it’s been hard this week saying goodbyes actually....ya weird I know. My district has meant so much to me! All of the Elders and Hermanas are my very best friends! They have helped me through so much. Every night before we leave we have a question for all of us to answer. They range from favorite place in the world to what animal we would be if we could be an animal. Everybody thinks I would be an Elk.....so that’s pretty cool!

Saying goodbye to my teachers has been really hard as well. Today has been our last day that they will teach us. Maestro Cayetano is an amazing teacher. I felt the spirit so strong today as he testified of the gospel and of his experience as a missionary. I loved it. Our last couple classes are after dinner with Maestro Chan he has been a way great teacher too!

Also today during Cayetanos lesson we watched a video on the atonement and missionaries! Holy cow what a video. It has taken the words from a talk given by President Eryring and Elder Holland. It talked about how the atonement is so important for the missionary. I started tearing up as Elder Holland spoke of the Savior in the Garden and on the Cross. The savior went through absolutely everything so that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father. I owe everything to my Savior. Elder Holland stated that a mission is not easy because salvation is not easy. During the mission I will feel the power of the atonement. I will use the atonement. The atonement will carry me through these next two years. I don’t think I fully understand yet how hard it will be. The adventure has not even begun but I am ready and willing. 

Yesterday we had a full day of meetings for preparing us in the field. It was a really long day but very well done and it helped me prepare for the field. During the slide the presenter shared a parable of a tumble weed. A man just bought a new car, as he was driving down the road he saw a tumble weed he quickly swerved to avoid it which resulted in him crashing his car. The next day a farmer was driving down the road. He was in his old farm pickup coming home from taking care of the chores. I picture grandpa’s old ford flat bed pickup...haha but anyways, he saw the tumbleweed and sped up. He reached a high speed and ran over the tumble weed. The tumble weed broke into many pieces and the farmer went his way with no harm done to him or his truck. In this parable this tumble weed represents trials. We all have trials but it’s when we see them and do everything we can to work through them. There will be trials in the road but we need to be prepared for them and just run right over them. The lord will help us. 

Well I fly out Monday morning. Most of my stuff is packed and ready to go. I still leave the CCM at 230 in the morning. yipeee............haha then we wait 3 hours until our flight leaves. I really wish I could call you guys but its all good. I’m sure I will be able to email you again when I get down the Nicaragua. I hope all is well. Take care

Elder Morgan Anderson

Getting Ready to Leave the CCM                             

                                                                                                                                                                                  August 27, 2014

Wow time continues to fly. I am doing very well right now. Early this week I got a little bit of a cold from one of the elders in my district probably. Here in Mexico it takes a little bit longer to get over being sick so I decided to just run to the doctor and get some cold medicine. I feel a little bit better today. The medicine works well. 

As I told mom and dad I leave Monday from the CCM at 230 in the morning. I fly out of Mexico City at 620 Mexico time to El Salvador. Where I will fly to Nicaragua at 842 El Salvador time. Wow all this time changing is getting really confusing. I can’t express how excited I am to go. I am so ready to get to work. I love the CCM but I want to be in Nicaragua.

This last week on pday we played the Latinos. ya it wasn’t really a game. We won by a lot. I scored like 4 goals and had 2 assists. The Latinos say they all like the way I play so I feel pretty good about that. 

On Sundays we watch a church video at the end of the day. This week was an older video on temples with the story based around President Woodruff and the building of the Salt Lake Temple. I loved watching it. It reminded me of the sacred covenants I made in the temple and how much I miss seeing the temple every day. It also reminded me that we are sealed for time and eternity and that we can do the same for the dead. Temples are definitely such a blessing. 

Also on Sunday I realized something I can work on in Priesthood meeting. That is being more meek. I think of meek as like quite dignity with being more happy. It’s a pretty broad idea but it is something I am working on. Also the sisters in my district told me to be more happy............ya I am working on that to. haha they told me I should smile more. I told them that I am always happy even if I’m not smiling. I remembered what you guys told us when we would pass the sacrament. SMILE!! 

I also learned that this mission is a time where I become a man. I will be blessed with a lot of hard things. But that’s ok because it is going to shape who I am. The counsel from our branch president is to face down the hard things. It’s like facing down the best forward when playing soccer. You always have to be aware of what’s happening. Use your the corner of you eye to watch and see how you can make the situation work in your favor. Then when the moment comes you have to take the ball and run. Take the opportunity to help your team and yourself. Kind of a long shot analogy but hey.

Kami shared with me a quote last week that I really liked from john Wayne......Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyways..... That was so great to hear that quote. I am a cowboy, and all state soccer player, but most importantly a member of the Church and an Anderson. No matter what I can do hard things!!! Sometimes during when times are rough I feel the presence of my ancestors helping me along. Especially Arlo and Alba Anderson, and Erastus. Idk why but I think about them a lot and about their lives and how they did hard things but they lived an amazing life based on the gospel. Grandpa and Grandma were always serving missions. I love how great of an example they are to me. 

Spanish has slowed down a little bit. But hey it’s all good. We are learning about Present Sub. Noun clauses. ya I have no idea what they are talking about........

This is the lords work and I am his servant!

Your missionary,

Elder Anderson

 August 22, 2014

Week 4- Mexico City CCM

Wow this time has gone by so fast it seems! But also it seems like it has been a really long time. I am now fully accustomed to missionary life in the CCM. I am beginning to really enjoy it here in Mexico but I want to be in Nicaragua so bad!! But more on that later....

With Elder Scheffler from Bonneville.

It's his birthday today!

Morgan played soccer against him
multiple times before officially meeting at
the Mexico CCM

 This week went by really quickly. It started on last p-day with a really intense soccer game. Probably more than it should have been. We get together every p day and play with random districts. Not to brag but our district has 3 players on it that received all region or all-state honors.....were pretty good. It was a lot of fun but there are other good soccer players here. I took on responsibility to mark a kid who was really really good. He got frustrated when he couldn’t get by me or I would win the ball......He got really aggressive. So I quickly realized that I needed to settle down too and just have fun. I am here to teach people by the spirit and if I can’t have the spirit how am I supposed to teach? I have realized that I have a lot I need to work on as a person and a missionary. I have a lot of goals to become nicer and more Christ like.

On Sundays we have devotionals. During these devotionals either the CCM presidency speaks or we watch old devotionals from apostles. I love listening to the words of our apostles.  This week was full of Mormon messages and other small segments from their teachings. First was Elder Hollands hour devotional. WOW! It was such a great talk. He really helped me understand why I am here and what a mission can not only do for my investigators but for me. He taught me that these two years will shape my life forever. That reminded me of how dad always talks about his mission and how he remembers the lessons he learns and thinks about his mission almost every day. I want my mission to be the best it can be so I can have the same experience after my mission. He also quoted and taught from the 21 chapter of John in the New Testament. I challenge you guys to read it for family home evening this Monday or as a Family sometime. It is now one of my favorite passages of scripture. Christ told Peter to feed my Sheep. Leave all that the apostles knew (which was fishing) and take care of those in and out of the gospel. Feed them the teachings of Christ and bless their lives forever. Being a disciple of Christ isn’t for a moment or even two years. It is a lifelong pursuit to serve him with everything we have.

Another part of my week was while we were in class we watched a clip from Elder Bednar and A Mormon Message from Elder Christofferson. Elder Bednar told a story of President Packer and him that taught that the spirit works in a lot of different ways. He began his address by stating if you are worried about if it is the spirit or just yourself, stop worrying about it! As long as you follow the prophets live your covenants and be a good person the spirit will guide you. You don’t even have to know it is the spirit. Elder Bednar said that most of the time we are prompted by the spirit and we don’t even know it’s the spirit. We just do it. Other times he said we know it was the spirit. But what it comes down to is living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we will be blessed. The Mormon Message was about the overgrown bush on a farm. And of how a gardener needed to trim a bush. It was related to how we have trials and God is going to shape us into what he wants us to become if we let him. My favorite line is, Thank you Mr. Gardener for loving me enough to cut me down. Wow this past week has been inspiring.

 I am so ready to get to Nicaragua. Don’t get me wrong, I love it here but I want to teach

Finally!  Some mail from home!

real people. We now teach the other missionaries in the district but it’s still not very real to me. I can now teach all of the discussions without looking at any sources in Spanish. My Spanish has really improved. I feel totally comfortable having a gospel related discussion but outside of that is really hard. We have a set of Latino missionaries in my apartment and we try to talk to them.  It’s really hard. They cut words in half and talk really fast. I think Spanish in Nicaragua is going to be really hard at first. Oh well we just keep working. The lessons that are really hard to teach though in Spanish are the Law of Tithing and Chastity. Ya I need to learn the Vocabulary for those two commandments. haha

Love,
Elder Morgan Anderson

 

August 15, 2014

Week Three Mexico City CCM.

Wow so much stuff happened at the beginning of this week, I don’t even know where to begin. I guess we can start with last Saturday. Wow what a weekend. It started great with a fantastic P day then went all downhill Saturday.

During a language activity my companion Elder Hughes got sick. He decided he would lie down and just try to see if that helped. Well it didn’t. Our teacher then came to me and told me that I needed to take him to the doctor. We ended up at the doctor and he told us that he just needed some rest and to go back to the apartment and sleep. Well as his companion I had to stay with him. 

Elder Hughes had a copy of one of our books in English so I began reading it. It was written by Elder Ballard I believe and it discussed the topics of our church and was addressed mostly to those who want to learn more about our faith. It’s a really good book actually. I read that until dinner time then went on splits so I could eat. During that time though another Elder in our branch got sick as well as another Elder in my district. All 3 of them asked for Priesthood blessings.

I was able to give Elder Hughes a blessing, anointed the other elder in our branch then was able to watch the other blessing to Elder Elison take place. After being alone in my own thoughts and starting to doubt myself and get home sick. I realized the best medicine is to serve others. Priesthood is a form of service. It is not for ourselves or for our own benefit. It is the power of God to bless the lives of others.

After blessing the sick, one of the sisters in my district asked the elders to give her a blessing of comfort. She had been struggling a lot lately. We all participated but she asked me to give her the blessing. What an amazing opportunity I was blessed with. I don’t recall any of the words that I said in any of those blessings but I remember the way I felt. I felt like an instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father. And that is exactly what I am supposed to be during these 2 years. I am supposed to act as Christ and teach them about the restored gospel. 

In the MTC they have a service where they will send your missionary a package like the next day with whatever you want in it. Some of the other kids have gotten some stuff and are way nice to share. One of the sisters got a ton of IBC root beer. She gave everyone a bottle. It made my week. I sat on my bed and drank some of my favorite root beer. I found some cookies at the la tienda in the CCM. They are just plain oatmeal cookies but they remind me of Grandma and Grandpas house! I love being able to just relax in the night for a little bit. 

With love, 

Elder Anderson 

Week Three Mexico City C.C.M.

August 8, 2014

Well technically I have been here 2 and a half weeks but hey who is counting?

This week I finally got into a routine at the CCM. Wake up study, eat, study, eat, study, eat, study. Ya that’s about it. 

The lowlights from this week was being sick again… I got better, then Monday I got sick again. So I went to the doctor here and he told me that it was just a bug and that I should watch what I eat. He said to not drink milk.........I haven’t drank milk for 4 days and they always have cold cereal available. It’s killing me not being able to drink the milk. But I got better on Wednesday and I’m doing fine now but I am still staying away from the milk.

The highlight of this week was today. We were able to go to the Mexico City Temple and go to the visitor’s center. The temple is currently under renovation so we couldn’t do a session. I was super bummed out. But the visitor’s center was the best I have ever been to.

During the tour we watched those videos about eternal families. The one where you go from room to room and watch different parts.  Everyone in my district starting crying.  My testimony grew so much about how families are eternal. That no matter what, I am sealed to my family who are my ultimate best friends. I have grown to realize the importance of families. They are essential to gods plan. I wouldn’t be on a mission if it was not for my family and the gospel.

Love,

Elder Anderson

First P-Day Email

Dear Family,

I arrived at the CCM ok. The whole ride here I was freaking out inside. But tried to keep my composure just like a soccer game. The food here is ok. They let you eat as much as you want but we quickly figured out not to do that. Some of my district elders and I ate some ground beef. It tasted good but made us all super sick the next day. We still went to class but we had the runs and our stomachs ached. That was Monday and I still have some lasting effects today.  

My companion is Elder Hughes. We are exact opposites. He is into way deep thinking and pondering. I’m the work horse most of the time....but that’s ok. That’s what I’m used to I guess. Get r done Morgan. 

It feels like I have been in the CCM forever, but I have been here only just over a week. I am beginning to really love it here. It’s so green and beautiful. It rains every night. Wednesday night we got like 3 inches of rain in just 2 hours. It’s pretty legit. There is a kid in my district who is going to Nicaragua that played soccer for Bonneville. We get along great. There are probably about 20 of us going to Nicaragua Managua South that are here currently in the CCM. 

They gave us our first investigator this week. We had to teach him entirely in Spanish! I’m so blessed to have all the material and books they gave us to teach out of. Every evening we spend 3 hours just trying to prepare to teach him. I am pretty sure he is just a teacher here but I don’t know that for sure.....we committed him to be baptized though!! Last night was our last time teaching him. He bore his testimony to us in English and we bore ours as well. That feeling of knowing you helped someone’s testimony is way better than a state championship or scoring a game winning goal. 

Please continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I love you guys so much. I know this exactly what I need to be doing. I read a talk yesterday by Elder Holland called, The Miracle of a Mission. He gave it in the Brazil CTM in October 28, 2000. They say it’s hard to find but way worth the read. 

Elder Morgan M. Anderson

Voy a Nicaragua!