3-2-1 Click.... Part 1

Here's some random pics to enjoy -

Mount Rainier from the plane.

Elder Annand and his 1st companion, Elder Robles.

Elder Annand's 1st Meeting House

 

Cool statue and scene...

The work wears 'em out!

 

Somewhere in the Seattle suburbs...



Alex and Friend

Ooohh!!!  Nice tie... big thumbs up!

Looking good and ready to go!

Week 23

Dear Family!

What an amazing past week! This past Thursday was Thanksgiving, and we had a HUGE meal over at a members house. It was weird because it was like a Spanish/American mix, but I guess that's no different from having Thanksgiving at Nanny's house because she makes some delicious eggrolls... Oh, how I miss them!


On Thanksgiving day, this Sister in the branch gave us a bunch of artwork, around 300 portraits of the prophet. The portrait itself is pretty large, I think 12x38 but I'm not 100% sure. Anyway,  Elder Talbot and I are giving each missionary a copy for Christmas. I want to send mine home but don't want to ruin it in any way - how do you think I could do it? Maybe put it between some cardboard and send it as a package or something? Not too sure...

Anyway, so I think I've mentioned it before but our mission is doing its own Book of Mormon read and are scheduled to finish on Christmas Day. Right now we are through Helaman 5, which is awesome! I love the Book of Mormon so much! What an opportunity it is to be out here to share something I love! With that, it has been a goal of mine this past week to talk to EVERYONE that I see. Yes, everyone... Needless to say we have gotten quite a few solid investigators from it! Everyone is a child of God and you just have to open your mouth sometimes.

I'm getting pretty close to finishing my journal! By the end of this transfer I think I'll be done with it so I'm debating whether or not sending it home and having you guys read it. Not too sure yet...

Elder Talbot and I are helping one of our investigators with a traffic ticket she got. The ticket was for $2,000 DOLLARS! THAT'S A LOT OF MONEY! She was speeding in a school zone (didn't realize it was a school zone) and got pulled over. Apparently, the cop didn't have his morning donut, so he wrote some other crazy infractions, too. Anyway, what we are doing is helping her write a letter to the police department and court in English so that she will have the opportunity to explain what really happened. Hopefully, everything goes as planned!


Anyways, I love you guys I hope that everything is going great! I hope the ward is doing good and can't wait to hear from you again!

Love,
Elder Alexander J Annand

Week 22

Prelude from June - Before Alex left for his mission, he added me onto his bank account so that I could monitor it while he was on his mission.  I noticed a large purchase had occurred last week, which surprised me because Alex's account was practically dormant since he entered the MTC.  Since Monday is his P-Day, I sent an email to Alex this morning to check on this as I needed to be sure he didn't get his money stolen.  And since I was writing to him, I asked where he was rotated to last week, applauded him on the recently received SD cards filled with pics and videos, and what he thought about allowing first names of his investigators & church members to be mentioned on his blog.  I think this blog is a great tool to keep everyone informed of Alex's travels and experiences, but it's also about sharing the Gospel with those outside of his mission who are following along.  He loves being a missionary, and is so immersed in the work.  Alex's emails, letters, pictures and videos testify to that... BUT... I don't want to get Alex into any trouble when I share these things with you, as I don't know what rules were given to him from the MTC or his mission presidency.  Anyhow, he replied to my questions in his weekly email below ~


Hello Family!

First of all, Mom, you're silly. It's called a transfer, not a rotation... I love you.

My new companion is Elder Talbot.  I'll explain a little more about that, and where I'm currently at, later.

Sooo...  Awkward story...  Yes, that was me spending money with my card (it was an emergency purchase).  So...  Elder Talbot and I were trying to get to Kirkland from where I am now.  He said that he knew where it was and what not, so I believed him.  NOT DOING THAT AGAIN!   Haha.. just kidding, but yeah, we got lost - big time.  We drove around for about 45 minutes and finally decided that we were lost.  We said a prayer, and let's just say that the spirit told me to go and buy a GPS.  So yeah, that's what the purchase was on, a GPS.  But hey... now I don't get lost, and I can take it with me wherever I go from now on.  So overall, I think it was a good purchase.  I just feel kinda bad spending so much without letting you know, sorry!

I didn't think that I took that many videos and pictures!  DANG!  How many videos and pictures do I have total?  Just curious.  And I am totally fine with you saying first names in the blog, but you can put up the pictures and videos that I have with other people, too.  I asked them if it was okay, and they said it was, so go for it.

I'm excited to receive your letter from Saturday.  I think I'll get it Wednesday, but I'm not too sure.  I won't be writing a letter until Thursday (that is our P-Day for this week).  The whole mission got permission to write today so that our families wouldn't be waiting too long for an email - I think the libraries are closed for Thanksgiving, anyways.

DRUMROLL!

So, I was in Marysville, now I am in LYNNWOOD!  WOO!  How exciting - I AM OPENING A BRANCH HERE!  Even more exciting and scary!  It's pretty neat!  The branch covers Lynnwood and Everett, which is a pretty big area, but there are only 30-50 members here in the branch (including children).  The missionaries (and members) have quite a bit of work to do to make this branch grow!  I'm excited to help!

My companion is Elder Talbot, and I actually met him in the MTC!  Pretty neat!  He has been out 6 weeks less than me, so I am actually training him!  I am one of the first Spanish missionaries to be senior companion and train someone so early in my mission.  Needless to say, I'm very nervous.  I literally just finished getting trained a week ago!  Now I'm training someone else - weird!  It's humbling nonetheless, I'm glad that I have the trust of President Wilson and Heavenly Father to do something like this.  I hope that everything goes well!

Anyways, love you all so much, can't wait to hear from you again!  You probably won't be getting a letter from me this week since P-Day is this Thursday, so I won't be able to write you all until then.
Happy Thanksgiving! 

Love,
Elder Alexander J Annand

Week 21

Hello!  

So I wasn't able to email home yesterday because it was some holiday. Forgot which one, is that sad? Oh well...

So, some stories you want.. eh? Sure! Well to start off, I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED! That's right! I'm leaving Marysville - it's so sad....  EB is a super awesome lady that I got to know very well and am very close with - it was SUPER hard to say goodbye.  She bought me a bunch of stuff, clothes, and even soap! I guess I'm stinky... LOL. But she is GREAT! I have some pictures of her and have been lacking on the picture captions to be honest. If you could, send the SD cards back so I can type up captions during a P-Day sometime. Anyway, so yeah, I'm getting transferred! I can go anywhere from Shoreline to Bellingham so it's nerveracking. I figure out where I'm going in like 2 hours. Scary! I wonder who my new companion is going to be?

"Crunchy like popcorn..."

Anyway, this past Saturday we had a dinner at a member's home.  They put some stuff on the table and asked us to eat it... There were bugs and grasshoppers.

No joke, pictures to prove!

I put some beetles and grasshoppers on a tortilla chip and ate it. To be completely honest, it wasn't half bad. Crunchy like popcorn. I wouldn't mind trying that again. I'm scared to try this soup called "menudo". It's cow intestine and foot in some weird broth. The description is enough for me. I've had cow tongue, head meat, etc. but I am NOT going to try intestine and FOOT! Ugh... gives me shivers!

Anyways, loving you guys from here! It's rainy and gets dark at around 4:30 in the afternoon, how awesome!

Love,
Elder Alexander J Annand

Week 20

Hello, hello!

Another great week!  Didn't get a letter from you today, so I hope everything is okay back at home.

I hope you are enjoying your calling. I heard that you were up on the stand for the primary program! That must have been so fun to be with all of the little kids in the primary.  It's so cute to watch them all sing and what not. The Branch President where I'm serving was debating whether or not to have a primary program because we don't have too many children in the branch, but as of yesterday we are going to have a primary program! Woo! I'm so excited to see them all sing, haha!

I'm running super behind so I haven't been able to write you too much. It's crazy that on my P-day I still have so many things to do! I'm so happy to be out here on my mission though - it's so great! A lot of neat experiences happened this past week that I don't want to include in the email, so you gotta wait until the (what you like to call it) snail mail comes! Mwuahahaha, you have to wait!


Anyway, I was thinking about sending a big Book of Mormon to dad, and a  few smaller ones to Scotty and the girls with my testimony written in each of them. Do you think that would be a good idea? Maybe that would motivate each of them to read from the Book of Mormon a little bit more. I wish that I worked with dad more before my mission, it's tough. But I know one day we will be a forever family! That's going to be great!

I love you mom and family! And Choma! Can I get a few more pictures of you guys, Choma, and (I suppose) Tucker? Is he adapting to house life good? Does dad it? Hehe - I can only imagine what he says... Oh, I love you guys so much! Keep being such an amazing example to me! It's crazy to think how far (not too far) away we are from each other and you can still be an incredible example to me. Thank you all.

Love,
Elder Alexander J Annand