Autobiography ( Week 4 in Třebíč, Week 22 in Czech )

On September 14th, 1989, on a quiet floor in the maternity ward of the Logan, Utah regional hospital, Brent John Anderson was born to Kathy and Brian Anderson. One thing led to another, and, on September 14th, 2009, Elder Anderson found himself in a missionary size bed wearing tie dye pajama bottoms and a fluffy white t-shirt, looking at the clock, had only one thing to say:

"What on earth happened????"

Yes, friends, it's been 20 years. Kind of exciting, kind of scary. It's also kind of ironic that I'll be putting my last journal entry in my current mission journal tonight, effectively closing another chapter as I also approach the close of the first 1/3 of my mission and open up on a new frontier of possibilities. This week has been a type of that, I think, in that we spent all of 1 hour finding new investigators this week but found 3, taught 4 member lessons, a slough of other lessons, received referrals, met our 70 hours of Czech speaking goal once again, and continued keeping Iva on the path towards baptism. Pretty remarkable.

I do have a few things to say about this morning before I dive into anything else that happened this week, though. As I found myself in that missionary size bed wearing my usual P-J's, I also noticed that a draft had sucked a few strange, round objects into the room that weren't in our apartment before. At least, they were, but they had been sitting on Elder Machado's desk in a big manila envelope marked "Shhh...it's a surprise for elder Anderson!" Yes, it's true: Our apartment was full of large blue balloons and a sign on the wall saying "Happy Birthday, Gordo - Love Lizzie and Miranda" hung on the wall. I suppose in my haste to pray and get into bed, I'd somehow fallen asleep while Elder Machado got the apartment in order for some surprise birthday greetings! To those of you unfamiliar with what happened last year, you can visit my dormant Facebook page and look for pictures of two girls sitting on my couch at 3 in the morning amidst a sea of blue balloons, just about to leave the mess for me to wake up to. Obviously, as a missionary it wouldn't work out very well for foreign female friends from home to sneak into our apartment and leave piles of balloons. So, they hired Elder Machado to help out. Thanks you two - you're the best!

Otherwise, it's been a great day and a great start to a great week, one that will be even better than the last. I hope you all understand that, although I seem rather enthusiastic as I write these letters home, things really are that good here. I don't make up any of the stories or how I feel about them. God has blessed us all beyond measure, and it only takes a few quiet moments of pondering to consider that, ultimately, God's gift of life to us and the fruits that we receive from it, be it new investigators, bottled fruit for food storage, good grades and success in school, or even surprise wake up calls as balloons come drifting into your bedroom, all should inspire us to love others more and to try and fulfill the vision of our divine potential within us along the way. We are all really blessed beyond measure, even in a world that is confused and searching for some stay of balance.

Thanks to you all for your support, your letters, and your prayers. You too make a difference in the work the Lord is performing through his missionaries. Good luck this week!

Thanks,
Elder Anderson