The Convenient Messiah

Hiiiiiiiii everyone.

Okay. So I need to apologize for being a debbie downer the last few weeks. I have just been having a little pity party for myself and that's not okay. I do, however, appreciate all of your love and support on my behalf. Yes these migraines are a pain in the you know what, but apparently there is not much that can be done about them. This week was not any easier, if not worse, but I am sick of being depressed and not acting like myself but I can't seem to snap out of it. I'm trying really hard to be happy and to get through this but it's harrrrrd.

Which I guess leads me to the title of this. The convenient Messiah. Interesting right? Yesterday in sacrament meeting, one of the bishopric members bore his testimony about a book that Elder Holland wrote and one of the chapters was called the Convenient Messiah. He said that NOTHING in this religion is very convenient. And if you think about it, it's totally true! Callings are never convenient. Missionary work isn't convenient. Obeying the commandments isn't convenient. But it's always worth it. Always. Even with these migraines, I have been able to see blessings from it. I have come a lot closer to Jesus Christ, and felt a small portion of what He felt when He was suffering. I have spent many hours on my knees trying to understand why I am having this trial and why I can't just do the work that I came here to do. I still don't know why, but I do know that Heavenly Father knows what I am going through, as well as my Savior. I know that everything will be okay, no matter the outcome. And I know that this is happening for some reason. I'm trying to stay positive, I really am.

That's basically it for this week. We didn't get much done because of the migraines, but hopefully this week will be better. You are all the best. Love and miss you all.

Sister Anderson :)

p.s. This week was freeeeeeezing. It was 65 for a couple days and i was dying hahaha.

The Noggin'

Hola errybody

Well I am staying here in Moreno Valley with Sister Staker! Heaven help us haha.

I don't have much to report again this week.. Nothing much has changed. Same stuff, different day.

My head is winning this battle I'm afraid. This week was one of the worst. We stayed home a lot and the stupid pill isn't working. I called the doctor and told them that it wasn't working and that it was making my hands tingly and so the genius told me to cut the pill in half. Like that'll work! If the whole pill isn't working try half the pill! Okay. So obvi that hasn't worked either. It makes me super nauseous too and I have hardly eaten anything all week! It's screwing up my body haha. There were multiple nights this week where I thought I was going to throw up at dinner so I had to go in the bathroom and just pray that I would make it through dinner. So this week has honestly been awful.

On the plus side... Have you heard about the movie Meet the Mormons? It comes out October 10th. I guess it just profiles a few members of the church to let the world know what we are about. But we get to see it! Unfortunately not in theaters.... But we get to get together as a mission I think and watch it so that will be fun :)

Welllllllllllll yeah.. That's about it!

Have a good week!

Sister Anderson

Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God

This was the best freaking week ever!! 

Okay not really but I'm trying to stay positive.... Haha. 

So with the Neurologist. We went in for about 30 seconds and he said that I have chronic migraines.. YAY. Not. So that pretty much sucks. But he is trying to find medication to prevent them. Currently the one I am on makes my hands tingly.... Weird. But it's kinda fun :) haha

We taught a family this week that recently got baptized but hasn't been to church recently. We talked about the importance of putting God first in all that we do. I read in 3 Nephi 13 about "seeking the kingdom of God first then all things shall be added unto you." As we were teaching I was thinking about how grateful I was for YOU GUYS. I am so glad that I was brought up in a home centered on the gosepl, where we always put Christ first. Even though I complained probably without fail every Sunday or Tuesday for mutual, I am so glad that your testimonies were strong and that you made that a priority in your life and in mine. Now I see the difference and the importance. I see families where the gospel is the last thing on their list of priorities and I see how screwed up their lives are and in my mind I can see how simple their life could be if they just came to church and kept the commandments! Gosh it's so simple! But my testimony of that got strengthened a lot this week. 

We got a referral for a guy named Jawon Longo this week... Yeah. Jawon Longo. He is actually pretty legit but i don't know enough info to say anything yet!

Other than that things are sloooooow. We are still doing the 30 day fast which has been going good. But a lot of the days this week we literally had nothing to do. And we had a massive heat wave this week. One day it was 115. Yiiikes. I'm so sick of the heat!!!! I am actually looking forward to it being cold. Wait. Did I just say that? Aaaahh! But we went to get Yogurtland one day and someone there paid for it so we got free yogie so that was good :) 

Well. Transfer calls are Saturday so we'll see what happens! Crazy. That means I will only have 12 weeks left..................................

Anyways have a good week! Love and miss you all!

Sister Anderson :) 

Slowly but Surely

Well this will be a shorty.

This week was reeeeeally slow and reeeeally hard. Blah.

We don't have a lot going on right now. People are cancelling on us like it's their day job and I'm getting tired of repeating everything I say. And my headaches were pretty excruciating this week. We stayed home a few days because they were making me nauseous.. Yay! I am going to a neurologist this week (whatever that is) so that will be interesting!

I got to go back to Hemet this week for a baptism. The elders had actually taught this family but they wanted Sister Allen and I to come back so we did! It was really fun to see everyone again. I want to get sent back to that ward :)

In our ward right now we are going to do a 30 day fast. Yes we are fasting for 30 days! Okay just kidding. But with our dinner calendar they are passing around, the people who sign up will just fast on that day that they want us to come over, then we will break the fast with them at dinner. So the point is to fast for missionary work and to show Heavenly Father that we are serious about this stuff! That we really want some people to work with! So I know that this will help us find more people to teach. Like seriously I only have 3 months left, let's get some people dunked over here. 

Honestly........ That's all I have to report this week... Yikes.

Here's a shocker: I'm SICK OF THE HEAT. But I also don't want to come home in December in the middle of winter....... Thank goodness we are going to Jamaica. 

Well. This week will be better! Lots of prayers are needed. Miss and love you all! 

Peace n Blessins

Sister Anderson :)

Wickedness Never Was Happiness

First of all … 3 1/2 months left. HELLO.

This week … was long. Super long. But good.

We had multizones (more like single zone conference with president) and it was really interesting. A while ago, President Mullen told us to watch all the PMG videos again because we were going to talk about it at multizones. So we got there kinda expecting it to be all that, but NO! President told us of 4 elders who were super disobedient and did a bunch of things against the rules (ya know just going to the Newport Beach Temple … and just to find it was closed). So the whole meeting was on obedience and not having bad habits and putting the Lord's will before anything else. It was really interesting. It makes me sad that even though we are missionaries, Satan still can have control over us if we let him. IF. Actually I think Satan works harder on us than on anyone else because he knows what great work we are doing. It's unreal. But over the course of my mission, there have been times where I have not been as obedient as I could have been, and times like now where we are striving to be as obedient as possible. It's insane how big the difference is! I am so much happier now and we are seeing so many blessings. There are people who are so eager to accept the gospel and we are having a good time, and I know that is because we are doing everything we can to be obedient and diligent. Thus 'wickedness never was happiness.'

Also this week I got to see a huge miracle! In Eastvale we worked with the Jenkins family. I don't think I mentioned them that much because they weren't progressing and nothing was really happening. The parents are both less active (active now) and none of their kids were baptized. But I got a call this week that one of the boys, Josh, was being baptized! So I got to go back to Eastvale to see that :) There were 8 sister missionaries there that had all worked with him! And there were 4 more and 2 elders that had also worked with him. It just goes to show that these things take time. As missionaries we get in this big rush to baptize everyone we see and forget how big of a commitment it is for people, and that they truly want to invesitgate and make sure this is what they want to do. But it is times like these that build my testimony and let me know that my time has not been wasted here. That I have been able to make a difference in people's lives. I mean, the mission has been the hardest time, and we all know Eastvale was a huge struggle for me. But it's ALL WORTH IT. Every last minute.

We are still working with some solid people. The beautiful black man (Malik) has a lot of good questions. There are so many prepared people here! I hope I spend the rest of my mission here. This is a good ward filled with good people. 

Oh, something cool last night. We were laying in bed, it was probably 10:50? I wasn't asleep yet and all of a sudden I heard a knock at our front door. Obviously I'm racking my brain to think of who the heck would be at our house at 10:50. They knocked again (Sister Staker didn't hear … remember she's deaf? hahaha) and I was scared to get up by myself but I heard the other sisters get up so I did too. I opened our bedroom door and saw them standing there with their keys in their hand. I asked who was at the door and they said "No one, but our keys were in the door." Literally no one was at the door but they had left the keys outside in the door. We came to the conclusion that it was an angel who knocked on the door :) It seems so simple but I thought it was neat that we are protected, whether it was an angel or not. We easily could have been robbed or who knows what. The Lord protects His missionaries! (When we are obedient :))

Well that's about it. Things are good! Super tired but good. I've honestly never been this tired in my entire life. But it's okay! Keep up the letters and prayers :) Greatly appreciated! You could throw in a package or two also ;)

Love you all! God Speed!

Sister Anderson :)

p.s. Sister Martin comes out with us all the time! And we go get Thrifty's ice cream. THE BEST.