Poptart anyone?

Well looks like I missed you guys! I'm sure you are all out touring Utah and visiting all those graves that I still don't know who they really are..... But I will admit, I am sad I can't go this year!

So anyways.... This week was good :) Sister Martin stayed another week, she is going home tomorrow since her surgery is in a week. Sister Allen is BOMB. I think she is a legit angel. She is probably the sweetest girl I have ever met and we have already seen some miracles from her! I love her and I am glad that we get to work together. She kinda reminds me of the dog on Up.. I think his name is Doug? "You are my master and I love you" She loves everyone without even knowing them and it's so great. She kinda talks like him too :) Haha

So we have a few potential investigators to work with this week which is good! We have seen miracles happen. Also Sister Graves texted me and said that Skylar Segura is getting baptized in a couple weeks. HUGE. I don't think I talked about her much, but she is 15 and I feel like she is my mini me. She went through everything I did.. Stupid boyfriend, trouble with friends, obeying parents... all that crap. But I was able to really really relate to her and help her realize that there is a better way to do all that with the gospel! She wasn't interested in joining the church at all, she was going to the catholic church but she would come to ours too. I guess when we got transferred, she started staying the 3 hours and agreed to let the elders teach her and they put her on date for the 7th! So I will get to go back to Corona for that which I am really excited about :)

Well. Hemet is cray. I love it though. I met a man named Poptart. Yes as in the toaster pastries.. He had a tattoo of a poptart.. After we had been talking for awhile, I said "Well.. Poptart.." then busted up laughing and said "sorry I have never called someone that before!" Hahah it was pretty great. There was also a lady we met that had a tattoo on her cheek that said "cheeks." People here are so strange....

This week was great. The weeks get shorter and shorter but keep getting better and better. I absolutely love it! I can't believe it has almost been a year since I left, but this has been the best thing I have ever done! So many people this week, whether it was strangers we talked to, or less actives that we visited or even our investigators thanked me for coming here and serving a mission. They thanked us over and over for giving up our personal lives to come help them learn more about Jesus Christ. I am so blessed for this opportunity to represent Jesus Christ. Goodness I am a lucky girl! Oh, lucky sister, excuuuse me!

I hope you are all being the great member missionaries that you are! Even though we live in Utah there are plenty of people who need the gospel more fully in their lives! Also I hope you are all using Preach My Gospel like Elder Ballard instructed us to do! It's seriously THE BEST!

Love you all and have a freaking good week!

Sister Anderson :)

What up I'm 20!

Holy moly what a week!!

Well happy 21st birthday to me.. right mom? Hahaha just so you know I turned 20... But that's okay. Made for a good laugh! My birthday was fantastic! So so good! Sister Smart called me in the morning to wish me a happy birthday and told me how well I am doing. She is the sweetest and it meant a lot that she would take the time to call me! Then we went to our district meeting and everyone sang and some of the sisters brought a cake :) That was super nice too! Then we actually had to go to the mission office to pick something up, but I was able to see all my friends! Sister Nelson was there and so was Sister Jenkins, so that was really fun to see them and to catch up on things:) Then Sister Graves came and we went to Panera Bread for dinner, which is super good, then we went back and opened up presents and laughed and had such a good time! THANK YOU for all my presents! I loved them all! Thank you thank you!

We also had the baptism! YAY! Irma, Karen, Karolina and Jasmin were all baptized :) It was such a cool experience to just watch one after the other go into the water and to see them partake of those covenants as a family. I am so glad that I was able to be a part of that and to be the ones to teach them about the gospel. They are the sweetest family and the Spirit was so strong there. We are so lucky to be able to have the right authority to be able to enter back into God's kingdom.

We also picked up 4 new investigators this week! All from YSA which is good because that Ward is strugglin' big time! 3 sisters and one other girl that are all pretty interested in learning more! Miracles are happening left and right around here!

We also had dinner with Zeny and Efron this week. Freaking hoot. They asked a lot of questions about the church, and we actually taught them the Restoration briefly. They told us a lot about their church that they go to and are very involved in. They are some of the nicest people we have met here! They texted us after and said that if we ever needed a place to stay we can stay at their house :) They also offered to let us stay until 11 so we could watch a Barbara Walters show or something. They were pretty disappointed when we said we had to be home by 9 haha. Efron printed out some of their prayers that they say so we can say them too haha. They also gave us little coin purses from the Philippines! So nice! It was so much fun to be with them and to meet them!

Transfers were also this weekend.. I am staying and get a new companion, Sister Allen! Everyone says she is really cool and that we will get along so I am really excited. Sister Martin is staying with us also for the next 2 weeks until her surgery on her knee so we will be a trio! I am so glad I get to stay in this Ward, I wouldn't mind being here until I go home! But we'll see :)

Goodness I am happier than I have ever been on my mission. This is a freaking blast! Am I allowed to say that? Haha seriously though I love love love being a missionary. I have learned more about myself and about life than I ever would have if I didn't come on a mission. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL! I honestly never want to come home haha. Sister Fia is going home tomorrow and we all cried and cried yesterday and just made me realize how much I love being here. I can't picture my life not on a mission... I think I'll just stay here :)

Well i love you all and am so grateful that you are all in my life! Have a great week! I love you!

Sister Anderson :)

Short but sweet

Long time no talkie!

Well since we talked yesterday (which I freaking loved) this will probs be a shortie.

This week was super super slow. Basically all of our appointments cancelled on us.. So we didn't have very many lessons this week.

Honestly the only things that I have to report for this week are that we did a community interfaith project and cleaned up things that happened from the wind storm (which was really like Mormons and Christians.. they didn't mix us up at all haha) and that we did our planning session outside this week, and I sat down and literally 5 seconds later a bird pooped on my face. Yup my face. I was freaking out, Sister Martin was laughing her head off, and I was screaming while washing my face.. It was pretty nasty haha. Makes for a good story though I guess?

Everything is on track with the baptism this weekend so that's exciting! We have a couple other potential investigators that we are working with that will hopefully be progressing soon. Other than thaaaaaat there isn't much else to tell!

SO have a great week and I will hopefully be able to report more next week!

Love you all!

Sister Anderson :)

This is an part of President Smart's letter to us today, I thought it was quite brilliant! 

"Recently I've studied "Confidence." Searching the internet to understand Confidence yields several helpful suggestions to increase a person's confidence, including: Identify your successes, bounce back from failures, be grateful, be positive, accept compliments, serve others, etc.

D&C 121:45 gives interesting insight, too. It reads, "Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God;..."

The Lord's plan to help us develop the confidence we need to stand in the presence of God includes charity, faith, and virtuous thoughts. The Topical Guide's section on Confidence also suggests the following related topics: Assurance; Believe; Faith; Trust; Trust in God.

Confidence is a state of mind. We can influence the level of confidence we have by practicing (or Role Playing - remember President Uchtdorf's promise to missionaries who role play). Practicing helps us get better at whatever we do, and when we begin to believe we are better, then our confidence grows and we actually are better. It is a beautiful cycle that builds on and feeds itself. 

Confidence is built on faith and trust, too. More specifically, faith and trust in God. When we really believe in God and really believe that we are His children, not just the result of a random chain of events that brought us here, but actual spirit children of a Supreme Being who created us in His image, who sincerely loves and cares for us, then our confidence will grow. How can our confidence not grow when we know that God is in charge, that He is our creator, and that He organized this world and placed us here?"

11 Months, Wind Storm 2014, and Diarrhea since Easters

11 Months today! And turning 20 next week! Whaaaaaat? How did that happen, right?

This week was pretty interesting, as you can tell from the title...

So remember that wind storm we had a few years ago that knocked over all the trees? Well.. We had pretty much the same one here! It was super super windy for like 2 or 3 days, and there were trees and branches everywhere! Electricity was out in some places, but we still had to go out! All of our appointments cancelled, so we drove around trying to find people to talk to which was ridiculous because no one wanted to talk and it was pretty much impossible to find anyone outside.. So we just drove around looking at all the damage haha. Our storm was a lot worse than this one, but there were still houses and cars that got ruined!

Irma and her kids are doing goooooood. They are still on track to be baptized next week which is a huge blessing! We are super excited for them.

The rest of the week went well until yesterday. We were sitting in Sacrament meeting and I started to black out and feel like I was going to pass out.. So we got up and went to the bathroom, then eventually went and sat in the car. While we were sitting there, I drank some water and ate a granola bar, and not even 5 minutes later I threw that up right in the church parking lot... Soooo we went home haha. I slept the rest of the day and threw up a couple more times and have had probably the worst diarrhea of my life. Haha its like straight water coming out and my stomach is killin. And Sister Martin woke up sick today too so this will be a fun week :) Hopefully it doesn't last too long, but as of today it's pretty miserable!

However, a couple days ago, we had a women's conference thing and this lady.. Can't remember her name... came to talk to us. She had actually served her mission in this mission, but she told of her story of being an amputee. She was born with her right leg completely backwards and after tons of surgeries trying to straighten it, when she was 10 years old she had her leg amputated. She told of how hard that was, but her whole talk was about her attitude. How attitude changes everything! Which is totally does. I have tried to have a better attitude this transfer, and even though Sister Martin and I are totally different, we are getting along, which is so good and makes all the difference! Anyway, this lady told a story of when she was in Jr. High and her prosthetic leg broke while she was at school, so she had to hop on one leg all day. She said that was completely exhausting so finally she decided to crawl. She was with her friend and her friend didn't want to be tardy, so she was telling her to just go ahead and she would crawl to class. Her friend looked at her, then got on her knees and began crawling with her. She said that was such a good feeling to have that support. Pretty soon, she realized that everyone in the halls had begun to crawl as well. She said they were all like 15 minutes late to class, but the principle came over the intercom and said not to mark any of them tardy. I thought that was the coolest story! It was like something from a  movie. Anyway, this lady seriously rocked my world. She gave me a whole new perspective to look through.

Something weird.. this week one of our less actives that we are working with said she wanted to take a picture of me and put it in her Book of Mormon so when she sees my face she will want to come to church because she thinks I am so pretty.. Weird.....

Anyway, this week should be better! Hopefully we are feeling better and all that. Hope you have a good week and I will see you all next week on Skype!

Love you all!

Sister Anderson :)