Pink Dragons

Now! First of all, if you don't mind, I'll make the rules!

Rules indeed! HA She only wants rules so she can break em!
I'll take care of you later, featherbrain! Now, rule number one, no vegetable, or mineral, only animal. Rule two no make believe things like, uh, pink dragons and stuff... Rule three, no disappearing!

Cough cough, rule four, no cheating!

Don't ask, it was just one of the first movies that came into my head. Sword in the Stone ^^

Well hello and how are all of you wonderful people out there?

It has really been a while. A long long long time. Like I don't think I've written in at least six or seven weeks now, and that might be an understatement! So, terribly sorry, I do hope you will all forgive me for that. If not... Well, feel free to let me know in the coming months^^

SO! What on earth can I tell you that will bring all of you up to speed? Sad thing is I don't even know where to start, so I'll start at the very beginning. They tell me that's a very good place to start. :)

First off, I am out of the 시골! ㅠㅠ I am out of the countryside and back to the land where there are people everywhere. And remember, we're in the orient here, when I say everywhere, you know I'm telling the truth. The mission has split and I was recently introduced to both my son and my new misison president! This is my third Mission President, and the second mission that I have been called to serve in. My son is from Vancouver Washington (use google maps or something, he tells me its a real city^^) His name, which we've been getting nonstop jokes about it since he has arrived here, his name is Elder Gamble ^^ People just love his name out here. Hope it doesn't distract too much about the message we share. Awesome cultural fact here, names are very important, and often people will tell you what their names mean and occasionally why they are named that way, etc. etc. So, naturally when they hear my companions name they automatically assume that there must be some reason behind it... It's fun.

Training though! Man, it is definitely different. I am loving it, but the pressure has of course increased... That sounded awkward... The pressure's gone up? I think that's how you say it... Regardless of my English, y'alls have hopefully gotten the point.

A couple of wonderful miracles though. I will say this about the Lord's work. We are all a part of it, though occasionally in the smallest ways, those little moments that often slip below our radar. I will tell all of you something to illustrate. The last area I was in, I will tell you that as I left I felt like a failure. Not in the sense that I hadn't worked hard, but I was there for three transfers, and nothing had really become apparent. I had picked up several investigators over there, but they only had interest in practicing English. I had started a little English class over there, I had only focused on that. Seriously. By the time I left there were, on a good week, seven people coming out to it, three of whom were members. So, I packed my stuff up, my companion who was there a transfer before I got there stayed behind, and I came back to the city. Then, quite reminiscient of almost exactly a year ago, I got a phone call two weeks later from the branch president out there, and what do you know, they invited me back out there for a baptism. ^^ I cannot honestly say that I can describe that feeling. The words to describe going back, travelling for three hours to the countryside, to visit and see one of my good friends get baptized, to stay and talk with all of those wonderful members again, the words are much the same as those I used to describe going back to see my friends in my first ward get married. It is nothing less than pure joy. It will never do, to say that those words fully describe that experience. Nor will it do to compare that experience with other moments of happiness, because there is no comparison. Though there are things that help, experience, in this case as in most, experience is the greatest teacher. I do not know if I fully understood, as I came on my mission, what I was signing up for; the amount of work that goes into the life of the missionary was unexpected. But so were the blessings that come. The happiness and most of all, that peace that comes, through the knowledge of the Savior's Atonement, and its equivilant, the application into our lives.

I love my Saviour. I would never have known Him this well had I not come on a misison and experienced what I have. All of these blessings though, are not because of anything that I have done. These blessings that I have received, and the blessings that may have come from me, was because the Savior was acting through me. That has been the greatest blessing to see. The Lord never fails. He knows His Plan. We do too. I love Him, and I love all of you.

Be not afraid, only believe. That is where true peace and joy come from.

Elder Annen