Long time no see!

sup party peeps.

 

Weeeell Christmas was a blast and a half right? It was soo good to see you all and hear your voices! Even though it pretty much killed me to not be there with you, it was really good to see you!

 

Not too much went on the rest of the week... Liz and her family are progressing nicely :) We have taught them like 4 lessons and they came to church again yesterday, even her husband Anthony! She told us that after we left our last lesson she felt a lot of peace and happiness about baptism. We also told her to read 2 Nephi 32 about the Holy Ghost, because she is kinda freaked out about it being a "spirit" but that cleared things up for her and she feels better about it, and a kid got the Holy Ghost in church yesterday so she understood it a little bit more, which was good. But seriously, the Lord is blessing us big time with them. I was talking to my district leader, Elder McClain, and i was just telling him how hard the mission has been and how i haven't had a lot of people to teach lately, but just having this little family and being able to bring the gospel to them has been such a blessing and has brought me so much happiness. It's crazy how much serving people and letting them feel the light of Christ can bring you so much joy. I have never been happier in my entire life :)

 

The only other thing that happened was on Christmas night, the elders came over to where we were having dinner and we had dessert with them.. and the family wanted us all to take home like 15 pies and we finally got the elders to take them (after pretty much begging) because we have SO much candy and junk at home. So they took like 6 of them and left. Well when we went out to our car, all 6 of those pies were sitting on the car haha. So we took them home and added them to our piles and piles of candy...  so we sneekily found out where they live.. and just nicely dropped the pies off at their apartment.. along with the rest of our candy and cakes and stuff like that. Haha their porch was cooooverrred :) It was pretty great. 

 

 

This week was really quite boring other than talking to you all! New Years will be interesting... New Years Eve we are in by 6 (so no pots and pans banging for me!) and New Years day we dont go out until 1! Haha avoiding all the hangoversss but that day will be fun :) I am excited to make some new resolutions and start this year off right. One of mine is to study the Book of Mormon more thouroughly. I realized how much i dont know about the Book of Mormon and i want to change that. I also want to be closer to my Savior and Heavenly Father. I want to have a very personal relationship with them, more than i already do. 

 

Well i love you all! Thank you for being so great and so supportive of me. You all motivate me to be better and to work harder. I love you all so much! Have a great New Years!

 

Love,

 

Sister Anderson :)

 

p.s. Sister Jenkins is a hoot and a half and popped a laundry detergent pod in her eye..... hahahhaha she was screaming for like 2 hours and her eye was pretty swollen.. and she had just gotten out of the shower so thats why she is in a towel but the pictures are freaking hilarious haha! 

 

 

Merry Christmas

Welcome to the good life

Familia:

This week was a good one :)

As of now its 75 degrees and looks like summer and i loooooove it. That may be the main reason im so happy :)

I went on exchanges with Sister Nelson this week.. btw she is an STL so now both my trainers are STLs which is sweeet cause then we get to party on exchanges :) But we seriously had so much fun! I freaking love her and we were way happy to be together again. We got to go to the Mission Inn, which i have come to the conclusion that it is the California equivalent to Temple Square but it doesn't even come close to comparing to it, but regardless it was really fun! We sang Christmas carols with the youth in our ward and had a blast! Sister Nelson really helped with helping me not stress so much about the little things. I really have learned so much from her and i hope we get to serve together again some day!

Lisa didn't get married last week :( they were waiting for their IDs to come in the mail before they could get the wedding certificate so we were waiting alllll week. We prayed and fasted and prayed and prayed and they finally came on Friday :) So they are getting the license today and then getting married tonight! Then the baptism is all set for Saturday which is so exciting. She is so happy and can't wait to be washed clean. It's such an amazing feeling to see the Spirit really work in someones life. She was in such a dark place before and now she just has this light about her. I can physically see a change in her. She lookes healthier, happier and just better. It's so rewarding. The Atonement is such an amazing gift.  I mean people who have committed sin after sin and just dug themselves so deep that they think there is no hope left, can be washed completely clean and start all over. It seems too good to be true sometimes! But i have really seen the Atonement apply in my life and especially in Lisa's. I KNOW that Christ did that because He loves all of us. He wants us back so bad, And He is just waiting to help us and to forgive us. It just takes us to make the first step of faith. Gosh the Gospel is just so perfect.

We had dinner with a family this week and we were talking about how hard the mission has been and how we haven't really had anyone to work with besides Lisa. He told us a very personal story about how on his mission his father passed away and some other complications were going on in the family. He told us that throughout his whole mission, he didn't have a single baptism. He wasn't trying to make us feel guilty or anything but it really humbled me. It really made me realize how lucky i am. He told us if the Lord wants it to happen it will happen. I realized i need to have  more faith in Him and in His plan for me and for the people that i come in contact with. I was so grateful for this sweet member of our ward who listened to the promptings of the Spirit to share that experience with me because that is what i really needed to hear to help me get back on my game.

We talked to the ward council this week about doing a missionary week to help everyone get into missionary work and i think it will be really fun! We aren't doing it unil the end of February (lame) but i will keep you posted, it should be fun :)

Well i am excited beyond excited to skype with you next week! I wont be emailing next monday because we get to skype so don't expect an email. But i can not freaking wait to see you all and talk to you! I just pray that everything works out how it should! I hope you have lots of things to talk about :) I love you all and pray for you all every night!

Your favorite sister missionary,

Sister Anderson :)

p.s. pictures are of me and nelly at the mission inn, sister fia and i matching, and me at our churchie :)

p.s.s. keep an eye out for a christmas card from me! and send me the one of the family if you did one this year :)

12/9/13

Hellooooo!

Goodness gracious i miss all of you so much! First things first. Love and miss you :(

Second. This week was a bummer. I was so unmotivated all week long.   Ugh i hate when i get like that. I was sick one day with a killer headache (boo) and then i stayed home with Sister Fia the next day because she wasn't feeling well. But the other days, I just honestly did not want to go out! It was cold (I know not as cold as it is at home, thank goodness. Im pretty sure when i come home in December i am straight up going to freeze to death.) and i just felt yucky all week. Besides Lisa (which she is doing GREAT. i actually think she might be getting married tonight? im not sure.. haha) we have nothing else to do, except visit inactives and part member families and its soooo hard to keep doing when house after house doesn't answer. It's just so frustrating. Maybe i am lacking faith or something, but something is not right!

With the holidays, i guess i have expected people to be more receptive but those dang expectations always get me down. Our OYMs have been real rough lately because no one listens. Over and over again we get rejected or denied. I guess i did sign up for this.. i just didn't expect it to be this hard!

Christmas time especially has been really hard to be away from home. I just see everyone with their families, doing their fun family traditions and it's super hard to be away from that! I'm so glad that i only miss one Christmas, but at the same time it is a great time to be a missionary. Christmas gives us an even better excuse to talk about Christ and help people come closer to Him. I just pray that we will somehow be able to touch the hearts of the people we talk to.

This week was hard for the other sisters as well.. so this morning i walked around the corner and Sister Jenkins hit me in the face with a handful of shaving cream hahaha so of course i ran and got some and we had a nice shaving cream fight. we were rolling on the ground with it everywhere, laughing our heads off. It was so much fun and greatly needed :) We also thought we were cool and made a 6 and a 9 for how many months we had been out and burned it in the sink.. then later realized how dumb we were hahaha but it was still fun :)

Being away from home makes me realize how much i love all of you and how grateful i am for you all! However, i have learned so much from being out here that i wouldn't trade it for the world. we were talking about how hard this is this week, and we were saying how we all have the chance to go home and to stop doing this, but there is absolutely no way i would ever do that, no matter how hard it has been. This is the least i could do for everything that my Heavenly Father and Savior have done for me. It has taught me how to purely have faith and trust in Them for literally everything. I have learned how to be patient (still learning.... ) and how to love people no matter what. I have learned so much about the scriptures and about prayer that i wouldn't have learned unless i came on a mission. This has BY FAR been the best decision i have ever made, and i will never regret it.

I love you all more than i can express. You all have helped me in so many ways that i am beyond grateful for. i am so blessed to have the family that i do, that supports and loves me.

Hope you all have a fantastic week, full of Christmas spirit.. take advantage of being with the family and tell everyone hi for me! I can't wait to skype you all in 16 days! Have a blessed week!

Much love,

Sister Anderson :)

p.s. another prank we did this week.... sister jenkins went on exchanges, so when the sisters went to pick her up, i hid in her shower and waited for her to come in the bathroom and then i jumped out of the shower and scared her sooo bad! I was laughing so hard i couldnt breath hahaha. She was sitting on the toilet screaming her head off hahahaha it was by far the best one i have ever done! Goodness. these memories will stay with me forever!

6 MONTHS: 1/3 done!

My dear family:

Hi :) Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, I sure did :)

Thanksgiving in the mission field is a huge blessing because it's like an extra pday :) So we hung out allllll day long :) We had a group companion study and just shared our testimonies with each other, which ended up being a huge bawl fest haha. I have been so blessed to be with the other three sisters that we live with. I have made long lasting friendships with them and i am so happy!

This week was kinda rough because of the holidays because everyone was either gone or with their family (jealous) so we quickly found out that we hardly had anything to do! We went from house to house, called people and literally no one answered. WELCOME TO THE GOOD LIFE.

However, Lisa. She is so great. Goodness what a blessing. She is so excited to be baptized and so ready and willing to do anything that the Lord asks. I swear she has more faith than we do! Anyway, her situation is a little difficult. She is homeless haha. She is engaged to her fiancé, Dayne, and we talked about chastity with them and they want to get married the same day that she gets baptized which is good! We just have to find somewhere separate for them to live until then. So we are working with the ward and with President Smart to figure out what to do!

I am absolutely in love with California. It was 83 degrees on December 1st. Hallelujah. I do not miss the snow one single bit.

Well. As it was Thanksgiving this week, I had time to sit back and realize how blessed I am. We all made lists of things we were grateful for and mine could have gone on forever. But really I am thankful for YOU! You all have been such a blessing and answer to my prayers. I was talking with one of the sisters last night about how i was so dumb and stupid in high school and how I regret pretty much everything. I regret how I treated all of you and how I didn't make my family a priority. I took you all for granted and I am sorry! But through God's grace and mercy He has allowed you all to still love me :) I am so glad that I am a part of this family and that i will be able to spend eternity with my BEST FRIENDS!

This email is kinda lame... I'm sorry haha. There really wasn't very much that happened this week! The pictures are of me, sister jenkins and sister fia in some nasty cheetah pants we bought last pday.. we had too much fun with those.. Others are of Elder Snyder and i, he is going home this transfer and was my district leader this last transfer and my zone leader my first transfer. I think there is one of our zone and then these pictures that we made that look like us hahah. super weird. i think i have officially lost it...

So anyways... I hope you know i am happy! I am the happiest i have ever been in my life. I love this work, i love being a missionary and having the spirit with me always. It's such a blessing and truly brings pure happiness. I hope you are all doing missionary work at home! It's not hard! Read Elder Ballard's talk from this last conference and if you aren't doing missionary work you'll want to start after you read that. Don't let me down family!

Love you all so stinkin' much :)

Sister Anderson :)

p.s. This time next year i will be home! Can you believe that?

Attitude of Gratitude

Hi fam :)

 

How's it? Things here are gooooood. More miracles this week :)

 

So we are teaching Lisa. She came to church with her fiancé last week. Her fiancé is in our ward but has been inactive for who knows how long. He actually just got out of prison… But she just randomly came to church and we were able to set up appointments with her. Our first lesson was really good… we taught her the Restoration. Every time i teach that lesson i gain a better knowledge and understanding for what Joseph Smith really did for us. Gosh i love him. I can't wait to get to Heaven and just thank him for everything. Anyway… we committed her to be baptized on December 21st and we told her to pray about it and everything. We went over a couple days later and asked if she had prayed and she said that after we left, that night she couldn't sleep, so she "opened up the word" and started reading and it was about baptism… so she opened up the bible and the same thing happened. Then she said that she prayed and asked Heavenly Father if this is what she is supposed to do and she fell asleep, and had a dream. She said in her dream all she saw was water and her going under the water. We were basically in tears when she told us this. She is truly elect and so ready to be baptized. Except she smokes and she is living with her fiancé. However, the second time we came over she told us that she stopped smoking! We hadn't even told her about the Word of Wisdom yet and she just said that she didn't feel good about being baptized if she was smoking. She is awesome. We have very high hopes for her and she is definitely a miracle from our Heavenly Father. She was greatly needed and seriously an answer to my prayers!

 

This week was freezing… it rained twice and i swear everyone went into hibernation because of it! There was NO ONE outside. So we would go to member's homes and they would barely open the door because they thought it was so cold outside haha. It was cold but only like 50. I have gotten so used to the hot weather here that it feels so much colder than that! But now it is back up to the 70s so it's all good :) I am excited for Thanksgiving! It's basically like another p-day.. so i might need some more money on my card cause we are gonna go SHOPPING! Yay :) haha seriously though. We are eating dinner with a member but that's all we have planned so i'm excited :)

 

Oh yeah, it's fine… just a month from today and we will be skypinnnnng! :)

 

Besides Lisa, we kinda had a rough week talking to people. I had someone literally shew me away… with her hands. She said " Ew no leave" and basically pushed me away. Another lady told us that we were brainwashed. She also told us she had the gift of tongues. It was just person after person that just rejected us hard core. it's kinda discouraging just because we can hardly get two words out without someone yelling at us.. but it's more sad than anything that they won't listen to the truth. it's interesting to me that we would dedicate this much of our time for something and people don't respect that and listen. someday they'll know, i just wish today was that day!

 

Sister Greenwood and i are doing better. Our companionship inventories are really great :) I have just had to be straight up with her about everything. She has been really nice and in our nightly prayers she always prays for me that i won't be stressed and that i will be able to be a good trainer and she always says how grateful she is for me and that she loves me. I do the same but it really has helped us both so much. just to openly love each other helps us love the work more and helps us be more in tune with each other and with the spirit. it's been good :) the only thing is that she used an entire roll of toilet paper in one day. by herself. so i asked her what the heck was going on and she said she would cut back.. and the next day she did the same thing. it is the weirdest thing i have ever seen hahaha.

 

We were saying things that we know/like about each other last night.. and she said.. well i know that you hate being messy and that you don't like hair in the bathroom! she also said i know i like your parents because your mom was miranda for halloween and your dad is really funny! i talk about you guys all the time and she always says she likes my family even though she doesn't know you. so i told her i know she likes toilet paper :) haha it was pretty funny. Anyway. We are doing good :)

 

I am so happy here. i love being a missionary more than anything. i can't believe how fast time has gone, this transfer is done this week!! totes cray. i'll be done before you know it! 

 

I love you all so much and hope you have a great Thanksgiving! Take advantage of being grateful. We are so blessed!

 

Sister Anderson :)  

Roller Coaster baby

Hola familia,

This week was an emotional roller coaster... LET ME TELL YA.

First of all, we had interviews with President Smart this week, which went really well. I passed :) Ha but really he is such an inspired man and he helps me so much. I was in there for a pretty solid time and we just talked about training and how to handle situations better. He is such a great leader.

However, George and Mike both dropped us. UGH. George texted us last Sunday like i said last week… but we actually still went over to his house to talk about it, and we ended up leaving him a blessing. He got emotional during it and we just testified our hearts out that this can really help him. So he said that we could come back the next day, so we did. We talked about the sacrament and about the Atonement and read from Luke 22. The Spirit was super strong and i know that he could feel it, even though when we asked him how he was feeling he didn't say much. Anyway he said he was going to come to church and he was actually really excited about it! So then Sunday morning he said that he didn't have gas in his car and we couldn't find a ride or anything. So long story short he didn't come. He said he was feeling pushed to do it and he didn't like that… so he didn't text us back for a few hours, then later he texted us and said that he doesn't want to do this mormon thing :( We both got so frustrated because we know how much it can help him and he just keeps changing his mind about everything. We decided that we were going to take him some cookies or something this week and hope he wants us to come back :) Stupid Satan is just working so hard on us and on our investigators. Some days i get so discouraged and so frustrated that i think he has me wrapped around his dumb little finger. but this week i have prayed longer and harder than i have before. My district leader called one night and just asked how things were going and i broke down and was just crying to him over the phone hahaha he probably didnt know how to react haha but he did give me good advice. I just laid on our couch and had a little cry sesh before i went to bed. This is hard work. I know it's the Lord's work though and that he has a plan for me and for the people that i am teaching. Sometimes I just wish i could just take a sneak peek at that plan haha.

I had to sit Sister Greenwood down and tell her everything that was going on. How she doesn't listen to me or help with anything and how she is super messy. She agreed to all of it and i thought things would be better but they are pretty much the same. You would all be disgusted at how much hair is in our bathroom. You thought i was bad! But this even grosses me out haha. It's super nast.

We keep pulling pranks on each other to keep us all sane... one night the sisters came home before us and turned out all the lights but they had texted us and said they would be out late so we weren't expecting them to be home. So we came home and went in our room to do our nightly planning. we were just talking for a good 30 minutes before we even prayed.. but when we finally knelt down to pray, Sister Jenkins jumped out from under our bed and yelled and i basically threw myself against the wall, screaming louder than i ever had before. hahahaha i was terrified! I literally thought i was going to die, that someone was under our bed ready to jump us haha. Sister Jenkins said that my face had pure horror on it and she still is laughing about it. I was so scared that i didn't know if i should laugh or cry after i realized it was her haha. Aaand Sister Greenwood peed her pants (or peed her skirt?) hahahahahahah. It was such a good prank.. BUT we have to get them back! So if you guys have any good pranks that we can do.. please let me know! Another time sister todd was showering and she left the door unlocked, so we went in and poured a pitcher of cold water on her and she screamed soo loud hahaha. And i put a fake spider in sister jenkins bed and when she pulled her covers off, she dropped to the ground as she was screaming and was rocking back and forth on the ground hahahahaha. we do have some good times :)

We did pick up 2 new gators, Lisa and Christina, but they will take a lot of work.. So we will see if there is any progression with them this week. Praying for miracles.

I know that after the trials comes the miracles, so i am patiently waiting for those to happen :) In our comp inventory this week Sister Greenwood told me i need to work on my patience... so i have officially had every companion tell me i need to be more patient. You would think i would learn by now? The thing is i really do try! it's so stinkin' hard sometimes though. So i know that the Lord keeps giving me these trials and will continue to give them until i have learned how to be patient with myself and with others. patience is surely a virtue.

I'm glad that you are all safe and happy. I hope you have a great week. Thank you for your prayers and love and support. I love and miss you all very much!

Sister Anderson:)

Miracle Week.

suuup errybody.

 

Well. We've just been doin' missionary stuff this week and it's been great!

 

We finally have investigators!

 

Big miracles happened this week :) We seriously picked up 4 new gators and have been very blessed. George we found in the Area Book.. that blessed book. We just visited him and he let us come back and we taught him about the Plan of Salvation because he said he is terrified of death.. But he seemed like he really wanted to learn more and have that faith in Christ. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes! He has been taught before and actually had a baptism date and it fell through.. But when we walked out of his house, we both looked at each other and just started crying. I was kinda in shock that that actually just happened.. We were so happy :) Then Sunday rolls around and George said that he was coming so we waited for him until church started then texted him and asked him if he was coming.. and he replied and said "I want to but i am nervous. I don't think i can commit to this.. Im sorry for wasting your time,  I dont think i am ready." Yes i lost it. I broke down dang it! I got my hopes up so high that we finally had someone to teach and that we were going to baptize him and everything would be fine. But no, of course thats not how it works and i was very upset the whole time at church. We talked about sacrifices in Sunday School and we all shared something that we have sacrificed. I said that this is the biggest sacrifice i have ever made, leaving my family and doing this 24/7. I was very emotional and said that this is the hardest thing i have ever done. I sacrifice all my time and effort on behalf of these people that i want to save and then they dont come to church. Gosh its so frustrating! Then in Relief Society, there was a lady who was visiting our ward and she has a daughter on a mission, and she turned to us and said "As a parent of a missionary, i just want to tell you that your parents love you so much. That they pray for you in every prayer and that you are all that they think about and that they are so proud of you." It was such a tender mercy from the Lord for this complete stranger to tell me that. I was so grateful for that sweet sister that I dont even know. I know that this work isn't easy..  I didnt expect it to be easy. The Savior's life wasn't easy by any means and I am representing Him so there is no reason that it will be easy for me. He had hard discouraging days just like i and every missionary out there do. But thats what we signed up for and thats what im going to take responsibility for. I am so glad that i do get to represent my Savior.

 

Anyways.... then we taught Mike the Restoration and he loved it, but has been out of town since :( But we have high hopes for another one, Taray, who did come to church! We think we can hopefully baptize her by the end of the month :) The other one, Jason, is part of a part member family and we cant tell if he is actually interested or not. So we'll see how things play out this week!

 

We got to go to the temple this week! Gosh i love that place. We had to watch the old one though because they didnt have chinese translation for the new one and there were chinese people there. But regardless, it was great :)

 

So from now on, we basically will have no contact with the elders.. haha. We used to have pday activities with our zone and go out to lunch after meetings and stuff... but we all got a text this week that said sisters and elders can no longer have pday activities together, or go out to lunch or do anything! Super lame cause we have fun with the elders.. So something big must have happened. But that was pretty crazy.

 

Things have been hard with Sister Greenwood.. I had to tell her that she needs to be more obedient. She was writing letters all week (we are only allowed to write letters on pday) and i had told her twice before that we cant do that and she still did.. so i confronted her about it and i think it made her feel bad but i had to do it. I also had to tell her the importance of waking up on time and having a full hour of personal study. That those hours are crucial to how your day is going to turn out. I told her that Elder Holland even said the hours between 6:30 and 10:00 in the morning can make or break  your mission. I have always remembered that and tried to have them "make" my mission. Anyway, I feel like i am babysitting sometimes which is really difficult. But i know that the Lord is forcing me to have more patience hahaha. I am working so hard on it! Sometimes i wish i could just snap my fingers and automatically have more patience :) But this transfer is really making me excersize that and helping me to have more charity.

 

I think thats about it for this week! It was a good one overall, we finally have people to teach! they just need to keep their appointments so we can teach them :) Haha i know that the Lord has big plans for this area. I am praying harder than i ever have before to find these precious souls. Thank you for all your prayers on their behalf and on mine. I love and appreciate you all so much! Just over a month and we can skype! So exciting!!

 

Hope you all have a great week! Dont be afraid to open your mouth to people you meet who need to hear the gospel. Every member a missionary ;) Read Elder Ballard's talk from this last conference, then do what he says :)

 

Love you all!

 

Sister Anderson :) 

 

p.s. while you are all cold and being snowed on.. im still gettin my tan on in 90 degree weather :) just thought i would rub that in your face :)

5 MONTHS :)

Heeeeellllllllllloooooo.

 

Well i am currently crying from laughing so hard at the Halloween pictures hahahaha. I honestly about died when i saw the picture of mom! That is HILARIOUS.

 

This week was a liiiittle better, We have been trying to go to all of the part member families in our ward and less actives to get referrals. The only things is that hardly anyone has answered! Sheesh this is the longest and biggest test of patience i have ever had! But clearly i am still not patient enough :)

 

This week at our zone meeting.. we all set our monthly baptism goals. We don't have any investigators that we could even talk about baptizing so it was pretty rough. We were all talking about miracles and how we need to set our goals high so that its a goal and not something comfortable. So after a good 15 minutes of trying to push the promptings away that i was getting.. we raised our companionship goal to 2 baptisms this month. This is a complete and total act of faith. I feel like i am walking in the dark right now. But the day before, a ward member texted us and told us that she has a friend that wants to take the lessons, and we have a few other potentials that we could hopefully count on to be baptized. It was a super spiritual meeting with our zone and i am totally counting on the Lord with this one. We have been praying harder than i ever have before for people to be put in our path that actually want to hear the gospel. It seems like everyone we talk to "already has Jesus" or has been "saved". Its pretty annoying because they dont even give us a chance. We did talk to this one guy, Mike, outside his house and we talked about the restoration a little bit and he said he was interested. We kept in contact with him and have tried to set up appointments with him. He even almost came to church but he was afraid because he is black and he didnt think there are black mormons.... hahaha. Anyway, we fasted all day Sunday for more investigators. For just someone to teach! After church was over, Mike texted us and said he was talking to his brother about being a mormon and they both want to learn more! Mike said he even wants to become a member :) I think that is the first time that i have really seen the effects of fasting so quickly. It was really an answer to our prayers and we are still praying that we actually get to meet with him this week!

 

Other than that there is not too much to report. OH okay so we have a set of elders in our ward too, right? One of them is going home the end of this transfer and he is super creepy. I told my district leader, the one who is a good friend from my last area, and he told one of the APs and he had to talk to him about it. Super awkward. This elder would always just text me and ask what we were doing or weird things like that that he shouldnt be asking. Hahaha as im saying all this you are probably thinking that is no big deal and i would never complain about someone texting me before.... but now that i am a missionary its all different! im a freaking weirdo now with boys and i hate it. its so awkward to be around them! (hope you're happy dad)

 

We had a breakfast devotional at President Plocher's home. He is in the mission presidency and his home is suuuper nice. they are in our ward and i love them! His friend spoke to us that was actually the former mission president in Jaden's mission, Lima Peru Central? Maybe im wrong but he was awesome. He told us there are three simple things we need to do to be better missionaries. 1. Know the Book of Mormon is true. 2. Pray for your desires 3. Have a firm testimony. I loved those. They are obvious but it is good to be reminded. It was really good and fun to be with everyone :)

 

Oh i also got to go on exchanges with Sister  Pack! She is a Sister Training Leader now so they go on exchanges with all the sisters. it was THE BEST day ever. I miss her so much and i laughed so hard. Harder than i had in a long time so that was really good :)

 

I am going on my 11th week without a solid investigator. Talk about rough sauce. It has been super super hard but i just know that i am here for a reason. President Smart emailed me back from last week and told me he was very inspired to put me here so i know that there is a reason. I just have to find it. I am again walking in the dark and looking toward the Lord for my light. I know that He will take care of me and that everything will be okay. I need you all to stop praying for me, but to start praying for the people here that i will talk to. They need your prayers more than i do. Pray that their hearts will be softened. Thank you all so much for the letters! I loved all the letters from all my homies and from  the cute girls in primary! That made my week! I was so happy to get that and now it is hanging on my wall :)

 

I miss you all so much but in about a month we will be able to skype! Thats so exciting! Be ready for a lot of tears :)

 

Love you all and have a good safe week!

 

Sister Anderson :)

 

p.s. Dont kill me, i forgot my camera cord again.. I even took a bunch of pictures! But i will for sure bring it next week! :)

 

p.s.s. but the pictures that i sent are from another sister, Sister Todd. She is a life saver :)

 

p.s.s.s. i forgot to tell you.. the car we have is a brand new 2014 chevy cruz. i LOVE it. its super nice!  But i do miss being on my bike! I dont like getting in and out and in and out all the time!

New new new new new. Everything is NEW!

Okay first of all.. I love that costume! Haha i was dying when i saw it. Everyone looks so different! Mom, phebe and liza, all of your hair is so long! Cant believe it!

Second.. New everything! This week has been crazy! All about change. My new companion is Sister Greenwood, she is 21, and from Far West, Utah (no idea where that is hahaha) But she is from a smaaaall town and you can definitely tell. We are VERY different.. I keep getting these companions that are not like me at all.. I must still have a lesson to learn! But she is super quiet and she doesnt understand my sense of humor... so thats gonna be rough. She is really.. monotone and doesn't have many facial expressions... And i have to repeat myself at least 3 times.. I dont know if she has a hearing problem or if she just doesnt pay attention. but we will spend like 15 minutes talking about something and then like an hour later she will ask me about the thing we talked about. its pretty frustrating but i am trying not to let it bother me! And she has never lived away from home before.. so i am literally acting as her mom. i have to make sure she wakes up on time, clean up after her and all that. That wont last very long haha its hard! And frustrating. She is really messy, again like Sister Pyper haha. She just leaves her stuff everywhere and it drives me insane! I know you are probably thinking that i do the same.. but no i have changed! i am like this neat freak now.. i think because i live with other people so its the considerate thing to do.. but i guess other people dont quite think that way. so i will have to tell her that its time to grow up and im not her mom! I already have so much on my plate, i cant have a babysitting job too haha! Especially because the first day she was here, she was sick with the stomach flu.... so we stayed home all day and i took care of her. so that was interesting because i literally felt like her mom. the mission nurse even said "welcome to motherhood!" YIKES. So not ready for that haha. But she has been pretty homesick lately.. She has broken down a few times.. And i totally understand! I get homesick basically every pday haha. We just have to remember that this is where the Lord needs us right now, and that our families will still be there when we get back. I told her we just have to focus on the work that we have and not think about our families as much. It is a lot easier said than done, but I hope she is okay. However, she does have a lot of potential. i am hoping that she is just not out of her shell yet. She has a really strong testimony and i can tell she has a close relationship with her Heavenly Father, which is good. I think everything will just take some time :)

Anyway. The new ward is great. i am in the canyon crest ward in riverside. they are loooooaaaadded. sheesh everyone is super rich here! but its good. i love the ward so far. everyone is really missionary minded and taking to heart what has been asked of them!

Lets see.. we live in an apartment with a trio of sisters. Sister Todd who served in Eastvale with me and sister jenkins and fia. To answer all of dad's questions.. Sister Fia is from Tonga, she has been out about 16 months. Sister Jenkins is from Salem, Utah and she has been out for 8 months. Sister Todd is from Idaho, 6 months. Then Sister Greenwood and I :) They are a hooooot. we just pull pranks on each other the whole time. I found this fake spider and put it in sister jenkins bed and when she found it she screamed so loud and dropped to the ground and almost started crying hahahaha. then i put it in her bag and she did the same thing the next day. i was crying from laughing so hard. then she tackled me cause she was so mad hahahahaha. then she has a fake piece of poop hahaha that she put on the toilet.. and she was trying to freak sister fia out but it accidently fell in the toilet.. so when sister fia went in the bathroom sister jenkins was screaming "my poop!!! Dont flush my poop!" so we say that allll the time now. geez we have a real good time hahaha.

To dad: to answer all your questions....... elders lived in our apartment before us (gross) so we didnt apartment hunt, thats what the housing coordinators are for. We are in a different zone than last transfer, now the Mt Roubidoux zone,  Riverside Stake. We dont have a transfer meeting, president just calls and tells us whats happening and where we are going and we go! The only "transfer meeting" we have is when we go pick up our trainees and have a training meeting! And hahahaha no, no one introduces us to the area. we are completely on our own. I wish they did! That would be a heck of a lot easier! and yes i kinda miss my bike. but its just sitting in our apartment. i would use it but its really hilly here and sister greenwood doesnt have one!

We have a few potential investigators already. Some of them are former investigators and one we found just walking around, Nick. He thought that Mormons didn't eat meat or drink caffeine and that we still practiced polygamy haha. We informed him that none of that is true, and i told him that probably most things he has heard about us isnt true. so he said that we wanted to find out what was true.. So we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he said he wanted to come to church next week so that is super exciting. It's hard not to get our hopes up with people like that, but i know that i am here for a reason and that we need to be expecting miracles. So, with Nick, I am expecting a miracle.

I can tell this transfer will be a total test of patience, charity, selflessness, and just about everything else. I do have high hopes for this transfer to help Sister Greenwood become a better missionary than I am, and to find those lost people who want to know the truth, just like Nick. I'm ready for more trials and to learn more about myself and about my relationship with my Savior. I'm ready for hard times, but also good good times. I'm ready :) I love serving here in California. It's the best decision i have ever made, and even though it is also the hardest, i wouldnt trade it for anything. Thanks for all your love and support towards me. I can feel the influence of your love and prayers everyday. I wouldnt be able to do this without all of you!

Love you all SO much.

Sister Anderson :)

p.s. Sorry, i forgot my camera cord so i will have to send pictures next week! or check the mission blog :)

A New Adventure

WELLLLL.. Hello!

 

SO. I'll get right to the point. We got transfer calls on Saturday! Last transfer we got them at 9:30 at night so I was hoping to get it earlier. So I was in the shower..... and Sister Pyper is all of a sudden pounding on the door saying "he's calling! President is calling!" So naturally, I literally jump out of the shower, and go to listen to what he has to say haha. So he tells Sister Pyper that she is staying and training! Then he tells me he has a new assignment for me. He says "I want you to go to Riverside, and you'll be training as well!" We were both super shocked. The night before we had written down every possibility of what could happen that we could think of and that was not even close to being in my mind. Soooo... After we hung up the phone, we both started crying hahahahaha. We cried for a good 45 minutes.

 

BUT after we got over ourselves.... We realized how fun it will be to train! Well at least I did. I think she is still freaking out! But I am getting doubled in to my new area, which just means the area is new to both of us. So that will be refreshing to have literally a fresh start. So fresh :)

 

I am super sad to leave Eastvale though. I love it here. I love the ward and I have gotten pretty attached to some people! I was pretty sad to say goodbye to everyone but I know this is what's supposed to happen!

 

Update: Remember that exciting new investigator I told you about last week? Yeah right.. JOKE. She stood us up, so I think we just got a liiiiittle too excited on that one..

 

We did, however, have a cool miracle happen! So we had talked to this guy named Richard in a parking lot like 2 weeks ago.. and this week we were at Panda Express eating lunch right? So we are sitting outside and this guy comes up to us and is like "Hey do you guys have a minute?" and we both of course said yes.. Well he sat down and it ended up being Richard! We had gone to his house before but he didn't answer. He told us that he worked with some Mormons and we told him a little more about what we believe, cleared some things up like polygamy... hahaha... and he straight up asked if he could have a copy of the Book of Mormon. Super cool! So we gave him one and he said he would let us know what he thought. It was a cool little miracle. I think it was God's way of letting us know everything is going to be okay :)

 

The Hadley's came to church! Another miracle. I love that family. Sister Hadley started crying when I told her I was leaving. So cute :)

 

Well.. nothing else to really report. Hopefully next week I will have some good stories for ya!

 

I am so grateful that Heavenly Father trusts me enough to do this, to train a brand new missionary! I don't know why he does trust me.. but I am glad he does! I think it's because this will force me to be exactly obedient (which I need) and it will make me do everything right. It will be good for me, I've gotten too comfortable. I am so excited for this new part in my mission but I need your prayers! Thanks for all your support always and for everything you guys do for me! I love you alllll and I hope you have a great fabulous week!

 

Much love,

 

Sister Anderson :)

 

p.s. My district leader is going home tomorrow so that's who that elder is! and sister pyper dyed her hair :) the other pictures are of some elders in my zone haha and a real estate sign but her last name is KRAY so I had to take a picture for you guys :) hahahaha

Rain or Shine!

'Sup homies.

Week 6 already! Can you believe it? I feel like last week I was complaining because it was only week 1! Hahaha :)

This week was good.. Nothing really special happened... oh wait. WE HAVE A NEW INVESTIGATOR! Hopefully. Don't get your hopes up too high..... We met this girl named Tatyana, she's 18 and she was a referral from the sisters in the other ward. So we went over and we left a blessing with her and her friend and it went really well! We are going back on Wednesday to teach her so we are PRAYING that everything works out! Blessings blessings!

This weeks weather was totes cray. It was super SUPER windy one day, then it was hot, then it POURED, then today it's hot again! But when it rained...... Such a blast! We definitely got caught in it.. on our bikes.. in our skirts. It was awesome hahaha. We were laughing so hard because I can't even imagine what everyone driving by was thinking. I'm sure we looked ridiculous. However.. I have a new found love for riding bikes in the rain! BUT I wouldn't recommend it hahaha. When we got home we were SOAKED. Head to toe haha and we were wet the rest of the day! It was great :)

Let's see… the rest of the week we just visited less active families. We have yet to actually get into any of their houses… But we have at least met quite a few.

Like I said this is week 6… So next week I may be in a new area! So towards the end of the week send your letters to the mission office :) My guess for transfers is that we are both staying and training a new little lady. But I have yet to be right with my guesses so we will see what happens!

We had multizones this week and I got to see Sister Nelson! Gosh I love that girl. She is kinda struggling with her new companion.. But I think she is holdin up. Our whole zone meeting was about dealing and handling stress… So I think pretty much everyone is stressed out haha. But it was really good to hear and they even gave us this blessed little book on how to handle different kinds of stress. Hallelujah :) But that whole day was good :)

Okay this is crazy. One elder in my district knows Corinne Lundskog that I went to Ecuador with! So he gave me her address cause she is in Missouri on her mission so I wrote her a letter today :) Another girl I went to Ecuador with sent me a letter too! Her name is Kayla and she is going to Mexico and she said it's an all walking mission… totes cray. I hate my bike somedays but I sure am grateful we don't have to walk everywhere!

Welp. That's about all I can think of for this week… Kinda lame, sorry. But regardless I am still ecstatic to be here serving our Master. I love love LOVE being a missionary, even though it's the hardest thing I have ever done. I wouldn't trade this or what I have learned for the world. I'm so grateful that He trusts me enough to be out here. I was thinking, I think this transfer was for me to be able to figure things out for myself and learn how to deal with Sister Pyper, without having to focus on investigators too. That was the best excuse I could come up with anyway :) But I really am glad that I have had to go through these ROUGH 6 weeks because I have learned so much. Not only about myself but about Sister Pyper, and my relationship with my Father in Heaven.

Thank you all for your letters and love and prayers and support. You guys are the besssst.

Love you all mucho mucho.

Sister Anderson :)

p.s. the pictures are of us being soaked in the rain :) and at multizones

4 Months :)

Hello everyone!

Gosh 4 months already! Can you believe it?!

This week has been crazy. Things are going so much better than they were. We went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders this week and we both learned so much. I was thinking about why I wasn't happy.. I have been called of God to do this work and I wasn't happy and it was really bothering me. I was trying to blame everything on Sister Pyper and I was only focusing on the negative. I realized that I was being a little brat and if I wanted our companionship to change, I needed to change. Not her. So.. I had to flip a mental switch and get over myself. I just started talking to her and laughing and forcing it until it came naturally. Now.. weird.. we are like super good friends. Now we actually have fun together. I have been PRAYING and fasting and doing all that I could for this to happen and it has. Last night when I was praying, I just felt this overwhelming love from my Savior. I know He is looking out for me and that I needed to go through that to learn what I did!  

Also. I have been praying for more opportunities to meet new investigators and stuff like that and I kept getting all these signs that that's not what I should be focusing on. I read President Monson's message in the Ensign this month about rescuing the lost. He told of a story of a less active man that wrote him a letter saying he wanted to come back to church but he was afraid and just wished that someone would care enough to come visit him. That broke my heart. So these next few weeks we are going to be visiting less active and part member families. So far none of them have really answered... But that's okay. I have a really strong feeling that this is what we need to do right now. After all, our purpose as missionaries is to bring people closer to Christ, not to baptize. Although baptizing is essential, so is helping those who have for some reason fallen away. So that is what we will be doing this next week! We have been able to get into a family's home, the Hadleys. They are less active and he is actually excommunicated. But when we visited with them they both said it's time to come back to church. They both smoke and drink so we had members from the bishopric come and give them blessings to get over that, so that was really cool. They have a son that is 18 and had a baptism date at one point but it fell through, so we are hoping that this will be a big break and that we can start teaching him and get him dunked :)

Oh yeah. Last week I bought some yogurt... and on the lid it says "want to save a life?" So I thought, obviously that's why I'm here for the next year and a half... but it says to send in the yogurt lid and some company will donate 10 cents to the a breast cancer fund... SO I am currently saving my yogurt lids because I figure, if no one will listen to me so I can't save lives here... at least I can save a life somewhere else. Hahahaha I'm also going to send them a pass a long card :) Haha I think I'm so funny :)

So CONFERENCE. Holy amazing. I loved every minute of it. It was really cool because I didn't write down a physical question that I had, but I had some in my mind.. and they were all answered. Elder Ballard specifically said "To all the full time missionaries: If you don't have anyone to teach, talk to more people." DUH. So we are going to try to double our oyms this week and talk to 30 or 40 people instead of 20 everyday. We'll see how that goes. Also.. side note.. Did you guys notice Elder Hales eyebrow? He was the very first speaker but it looked like he had one eyebrow drawn on.. So I honestly don't really know what he said because I was so transfixed on his eyebrow that I couldn't pay attention! Hahahaha. Anyway, I loved the repetitive messages. Rely on Him, Be not afraid, only believe, Rescue the lost, Believe in miracles, and I loved loved LOVED Elder Holland's talk. I loved how he said "If the bitter cup doesn't pass, drink it." He is so profound, I was basically hypnotized while he was speaking. And as always I am so grateful for President Monson. I was bawling as he was talking about his wife and how today is their 65th? wedding anniversary. I was so heartbroken for him but so amazed at his strength. I just love him so much.

 How lucky are we to have him and the other apostles? I can't think of anything better to have. We are so lucky to be members of this incredible church and to be children of our Heavenly Father. We are so blessed and we all have such a divine purpose. I love being a missionary and being able to further my relationship with my Father and my Brother. I am so grateful for you and my whole family. You are all such an inspiration to me. Thank you for your prayers and letters. They have definitely helped immensely.

I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Love always,

Sister Anderson :)

Sept. 29

Hi my sweet family :)

Well. From the beginning, this letter won't be anything special.

This week was just like the last. We still have no one to teach... And I have found that it is extremely hard to be motivated when you go out aimlessly knocking on doors. Go figure? We have tried to contact former investigators from our area book but have had no success. Either they are not interested, or moved, or don't answer. So this week our bishop gave us a list of less active people to visit so hopefully we get something out of contacting those people.

Elder Richards was able to come, and that was good to be able to hear from him. He is definitely an inspired man that knew what he was talking about! He talked a lot about faith and trusting in God, which is exactly what I needed. I know that this whole trial is a test of my faith, and I am trying to keep up my faith and not get discouraged, as hard as that is.

We also got to go to the General Relief Society meeting which was really good! I thought it was cool how the whole meeting was centered on keeping our covenants and if we REALLY love our Savior, we would have no problem keeping them. Well duh. Obviously He knows that we are mortal and that we will mess up and not be perfect, but it made me think, how much do I really love Him? He gave me so much that the least I can do is do my best to be like Him, to not complain about this dumb trial I am going through.. I really loved that whole meeting. I got a lot out of it that I really needed to hear.

I feel a lot better this week. My strep is completely gone which is really good because that is one last thing to worry about! I was telling Sister Pyper, I feel bad for her because she has really never had the opportunity to do missionary work. Since she has been here we have hardly taught any lessons. She doesn't even know what it's like to see the change in people and to see the Spirit work in them. All she knows is dumb tracting and I know it's not, but I feel like that is partly my fault. I feel like I don't know how to train her when we have no one to practice for! It's been really hard to not have any investigators. However, an elder in my zone was talking to me and said that every missionary has to go through something like this. He said consider it a blessing that it is happening at the beginning of my mission so I can get it over with! I hope that's true and that it doesn't happen again, although I'm sure it will haha.

I loved the letters and support I got this week. I can definitely feel the love from everyone at home and it is greatly appreciated! I love it because I feel like I am alone in this companionship so it is good to have the support from home. Sister Pyper and I don't argue or fight or anything like that, but I feel like our companionship is very one sided. I always make all the decisions, I start everything and she copies everything I do. It's so irritating. I told her she doesn't have to do that and she can take initiative for herself.. but so far that has done nothing. We hardly talk to each other, only when we have to, and we never laugh or joke or anything. She doesn't take jokes very well so it's pretty awkward 95% of the time.

I try to be happy and I try to find the good in everything, as hard as that is. I try to just keep going and to do what I know I need to do. Please pray for me though... I am trying my hardest to just keep going and to know that we have to walk the hard road to get to the good. I knew that a mission wouldn't be easy. I mean I represent Christ, and His life was in no way easy, so why would my mission be? I know that He was mocked, persecuted, crucified and killed for my benefit so that He would know every little thought that ran through my mind. So that He could be there and help me when I am going through hard times like this. I am so eternally grateful for Him and His sacrifice for ME. I KNOW that He is my Savior and that He is waiting to help and bless each one of us. I know the power of the Atonement and the strength that we can gain from knowing that He is waiting to stretch forth His hand to help us. I'm so grateful for my Savior and for the knowledge that I have of this gospel. I know that we will find people to teach soon. I know that we are put through trails to grow stronger and to learn something new and learn to become more like Christ. I know that He trusts me and knows that I can get through this trial. I am so grateful for all of you and all your love, prayers, letters, and support that I get from you everyday. I am SO blessed to have such an amazing family.

I love you all. Know that I am happy and that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world, despite the hard times I am going through. I love this gospel with all my heart.

Love you all,

Sister Anderson

p.s. Sorry this was so depressing. Hopefully next week will be more successful and I will actually have something to talk about!