week 12 - no estoy muriendo, pero hace frio

Hey y'all! It was a short week this week but busy none the less.

We had pday on Wednesday this last week bc of our zone going to the temple. We went to the oquirrh mountain temple which was sooo beautiful! Then we had Chick-fil-A for lunch afterwards. Apparently they have a missionary discount at the Chick-fil-As around here and it was like $3 ️🏼 sooooo good. Then we went home and did the usual and went to a zone activity later where we played volleyball and soccer. The after we had dinner with the xochipa family who are awesome. And then we had a lesson with Eduardo and Maria again who we went to temple square with them last week. 

Thursday was pretty good too. We had a lesson planned with Itzy and Alicia that morning but it turned out to only be itzy. Alicia had to work last minute so we didn't get to follow up on the Book of Mormon we gave her. But we brought hermana Pacheco with us who's a member in our ward. She's so cute. But we talked to her about miracles and seeing the lords hand in our lives. We shared a scripture with her in alma about miracles too (I forgot where it was) but she loved that scripture and said she would start to look for the miracles in her life every day. Then after that lesson we did weekly planning and then went and did some service for an inactive lady in the ward who's single and has 6 kids  but she's so funny. We also went so we could help her clean her house and sweep and mop and everything. Then for our dinner apt we had dinner with Stephanie and her family! Her step mom is from Colombia and she made some super good food. We're starting to develop a better relationship with her dad which was pretty hard in the beginning bc he was always judging us and being kinda closed off. But now he is opening up a lot more and is being really nice to us! We shared a scripture with them after and asked if they had any friends or neighbors who might want the gospel and they gave us some friends who live in west valley. That isn't in our area but we passed it on to the missionaries over there. 

Friday was crazy! We had a lesson with Jazmine in the morning. She was the one we got from the elders a while ago who was almost baptized. But we have been teachimg her and she's opening up more to us. She was really shy in the beginning and now she talks a lot more. But we brought a member with us this time, Hermana Swenson, she has 2 kids the same age as hers so they were able to play while we talked with her! We talked about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. Then right in the middle of that her baby daddy came in and made things super awkwArd and uncomfortable again. The elders teach him bc he lives in their area and he's got some problems. But we finished up with her and invited her to pray about the Book of Mormon and Jospeh smith and she said she would! Then later that night after dinner we helped some elders in our district with an apartment complex they have. They had soooooooo many referrals in there. Like so many. So there were like 3 other companionships and we knocked all the doors in the whole place and found their referrals and even got some more for them! It was super fun because we normally don't knock doors bc it's Utah, but surprisingly there were hardly any members in this place and if they were they were less active! So we got a lot of appointments set up for them and the English elders in their area too. 

On Saturday morning our car started having some problems so our vehicle coordinator told us to take it into the dealership asap. So we did and for the next little bit we're walking! I didn't realize how spoiled we were with our car until we were walking in the snow all day in 26 degree weather  soooooooo cold. Omg. The English elders in our area texted us later and asked why we were walking and we told them that our car got stolen lol. They believed us too  it was a good joke. But yeah so walking in our area is a little harder because our area is pretty big. For y'all who live in the peachtree city ward boundaries, that's about how big our area is that we're covering. It's huge for walking. So we group a lot of referrals that we had in different areas so we've been contacting them based on the area that they live in. Its kinda fun though! I'd be down to walk all the time when it gets warmer. 

Then on Sunday we had some meetings and church! Church was great! We had quite a few people at church this week so that's really good. Hermana Ávalos had to translate a talk up on the stand bc members of the high counsel were speaking. She did a good job! She was having a hard time bc the guy she was translating for used a lot of big complicated words. But it all made sense what she said! So that's great. Then we had dinner with the relief society president and her husband and family. They're crazy but they're so awesome. Me and Ávalos both (on accident but not a coincidence) studied in alma 31 that morning. So we shared verse 35 and it's soooo good y'all! 

35 Behold, O Lord, their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord, power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee.

We talked about how each and every one of us are gods children and he wants the best for us in our lives. Each person in our lives are there for a reason and when we see them as our brothers and sisters under Heavenly Father and have that mindset we can be instruments in the lords hands and help bring them to Christ! So we invited them to pray this week to be instruments in the lords hands for someone in their lives whether it be at school or at work or something. It's so important for us to look at eachother the way that god looks at us! He sees us for our potential and knows we can change for the better in our lives. 

I hope y'all have a great week! God loves y'all! 

Con queso, 

Hermana anderson 

Found this while walking haha, it says "space squad" 

Made a snowman at the dealership 

Selfies with Ashley

District lunch! We all cooked this week! 

Our district! Left to right ( me, Ávalos, elder Simpson from Georgia, elder Jacobe from Germany, elder flores from Mexico, and elder Rodriguez from Colorado) 

Dead after a long day haha 

Week 11- semana loca y larga

Hey y'all I hope everybody had a great week. This week has been so long because we went to the temple today so our pday got moved to Wednesday instead of Monday. So we've been going a while without a break! But this week was amazing seriously! 

Monday we just had a chill pday. Then we went to la familia de Leon's house to teach them a lesson! All of their kids have been baptized, but since the parents had some legal troubles with getting married they haven't been able to get baptized yet. But it's really weird because they have callings in church and they have given talks. But anyway their legal problems have been fixed and they are thinking about getting married soon. We went and talked to them about the plan of salvation and how through the atonement we will all be able to live with our families and heavenly father again after this life. They are awesome and they are probably going to get married soon!! Then after that lesson, we had a lesson with Jade! She got baptized this Saturday!! more about that in a second . 

On Tuesday we had zone conference with both of the Spanish zones. It was so amazing!! The theme was on the plan of salvation and how we can teach it to our investigators in a more simple way. We talked about every little detail of the plan of salvation so that we could  understand it on a deeper level. Then with this knowledge President said that we would better be able to simplify it so that they could understand it! It was soooooo cool man. I love president palmer. Then after zone conference you went home and had lunch and then we got Jade's baptism information together so that we could send it to the bishop! It was a little stressful but we got it done. Then we had another lesson with la familia Manrique. The daughter Stephanie is nine years old and she hasn't been baptized yet because of some family problems. But we've been teaching her and she's learning a lot! She's so cute. with the things that are going on  her family, she won't be able to get baptized for a while but we're still able to teach her and help her learn about the gospel!

On Wednesday we had exchanges with the sister training leaders. They are awesome! I stayed in magna and hermana Messisco came here with me. She served here a year ago so she was super pumped to see the people in her ward. But y'all, this day was completely packed! I was so nervous to be here without Ávalos because since she drives, I don't know my way around and I don't really know where anybody lives. But it all worked out OK! We had about an hour in the beginning where we didn't have anything confirmed. So we went to go visit this less active family that we teach sometimes. They've been active and in active for a long time. But the last time me and Avalos went to go visit her she said that she really really wanted to come back to church and to feel the spirit more in her life. So when Hermana Messisco came with me to this lesson we just talk to her and got to know her a little bit more. Because usually whenever we go see her, she usually talks to Avalos because she's Latina and knows Spanish way better than I do. She's an awesome lady! We talk to her about her baptism and what she felt whenever she got baptized, and we talked about the baptismal covenants that we make whatever we are baptized. We then read a little bit out of Mosiah 18 and invited the rest of her family to read it together! It was suuuccchhh a great lesson y'all. The whole family was there, and I've never met them all before. So it was great to have them all in the discussion. The. After that lesson we went to drop off a gift for a pregnant lady in the ward. She's so adorable and they're naming their baby Nirvana. Lol. The dad really loves that band. And then we went to a new investigators house that we got last week from the elders who was almost baptized but backed out at the last minute. It was kinda weird and then her baby daddy showed up and the elders told us some crazy stories about him. He kinda made the whole situation uncomfortable so we just testified of repentance and baptism and we were there for a long time bc he just talked and talked and talked. But we invited the girl, jasmine to be baptized on feb 18th and she said yes! So we're working with her and her family rn. Then after we had dinner and had some bomb tacos at this lady's house. Like BOMB tacos y'all. We found this scripture last week in alma 26:2-3. It talks about the blessings of the gospel and how we are so lucky to have it in our life's! It also talks about how other people live in darkness and sadness because they don't know of the wonderful gift of the atonement and Jesus Christ. So this scripture has been helping members get into a mindset of missionary work and coming out with us/helping us get referrals! So good.

Then on Thursday we had one more lesson in the morning with itzy. She's been less active for a while. But she just recently had a friend move into her basement from Mexico for the next 6 months (!!!!!!) and she is super awesome y'all. Her name is Alicia and she loooovvveeess Jesus. She said she liked seeing the missionaries around Mexico because she knew that they were giving their lives for the next few years to the lord and she really admired that. So we got to talking about Christ and how he's played a role in our lives and it was great! Then we were talking about prayer and I shared James 1:5 and we talked a little bit about that and then hermana Messisco brought up the Book of Mormon! Alicia had never heard about it but she said she loved the Bible. She asked us if she could get a copy and read it and we were like OMG YES OF COURSE! She's great. So we're excited to teach her again this week! Then we met up and ended exchanges and Ávalos and I did weekly planning. Then we met with jade and Miguel. Jade was awesome as always. We had a lesson planned for Miguel that might but it didn't end up going as planned. He's been having some hard times recently because he's away from his family who's in Mexico and he's the only member. So we helped him with that and shared this cool video that Ávalos had saved on her iPad. It was about getting through trials and how Christ knows exactly how to help us and give us peace when we're going through hard stuff. 

Friday was chill. We had district meeting and then contacted referrals for most of the day. Then we had jades baptismal interview and she passed!! 

Saturday was JADES BAPTISM!!! She's so cute y'all. I freaking love her. Ávalos' old comp came that helped teach her too and jade was so happy to see her. The service was so spiritual and amazing. The best part was that jades dad was able to baptize her after being inactive for a long time! I'm telling y'all anyone can come back. Afterwards she got really emotional and normally she's crazy and hyper so we really knew that she felt it. I've never been so excited for someone ever! She told us that she wants to get to the temple asap so that's her next goal. Also her family has been inactive for a long time so they were never sealed. So the family will be working on getting to the temple all together too! 

Sunday jade was confirmed at church by her grandpa, who's the Spanish stake patriarch, and it was also so great. She was so pumped to be an official member after that! She even gave the closing prayer in sacrament meeting. Ugh she's so cuter! 

Monday was a struggle bc our bodies were used to it being pday. But it wasn't. Haha. But we contacted another referral that we got from the elders who also knew another investigator from a while ago. So that was cool!  But they weren't that interested so it's all good. Then we visited this lady that has some super bad health problems and isn't able to go to church because of them. So we talked to her for like a super long time and she was super happy about that. Then we had a lesson with Elida who is getting baptized on the 28th! She's so pumped too. Her kids were baptized a year ago and they have plans to go to the temple and do baptisms together the first week of feb. 

Then on Tuesday we did some service for this less active lady, and then our dinner cancelled on us so she fed us dinner too! She's sooooooo nice. We were able to have a lesson with her family as well and we talked about how God loves us so much and he knows our potential as people and he wants to help us! We just have to let him. Then we had a lesson with the familia Manrique again about the word of wisdom and it was great. Their family is really opening up to us so we're really excited for them! 

Anyway here's some pics! I hope y'all have a great week! Heavenly Father loves y'all! 

Oh ps. I forgot to say we went to temple square this week too! Right before we had posole for dinner and most of the time you out lettuce in it. Lettuce and hot liquid makes you super tired, at least that's what my Mexican comp says. AND SHE WAS SO RIGHT LOL. I was sooo dead at temple square and I swear the people that we went with were speaking Chinese or something bc my brain wasn't working and I couldn't understand them lol. Learn from my mistakes and don't eat lettuce and soup before something important! Haha

Con amor,

Hermana anderson 

Oquihrr mountain temple this morning! 

Temple square this week! 

After temple square when I look dead as ever. But Mexican snacks!!

Jades baptism ️️️️

With her dad 

Zone conference 

exchanges with messico

Week 10- siempre trabajano

Hey everyone! I hope y'all had a great week! Ours was pretty good. We had way more lessons than the previous ones bc people are finally back in town. Yay! 

But Monday was a chill pday. We didn't feel like doing anything so we just did out shopping and then hung out at home until that night. Then we went and contacted a new referral that we got from the elders on the other side of magna. She was taking the lessons for like a year at her boyfriends house, and their relationship was kinda bad. Off and on. So she moved out and is living in our area now and she's kinda hard to read. She's pretty closed off and didn't say much but her kids are pretty funny! So we will see how that goes. 

Tuesday we had a new missionary meeting with president palmer and it was great! It was also great to see the other missionaries I came out with. Then we went to a place called pizza rev with everyone and it was SO good. Omg. Some of the best pizza I've ever had except for pizza in Italy haha. But then that night for dinner we accidentally stayed way too long bc the people would not stop talking! They were cool and super funny, but we ended up missing 2 appointments. (Both of which cancelled anyway during dinner, but we didn't see the texts until after we left).  But we had some time to try and fill so we tried to contact some referrals that we hadn't seen yet and they all weren't home. So it was 8:47pm, and we aren't supposed to be home until 9pm. And we were just driving around trying to figure out what to do, when Ávalos saw the light of a house of a previous referral was on. Background story, they went to that house to find the referral and ended up finding her boyfriend whom she had left recently. He was crying and playing sad music, so they talked to him and started meeting with him, and then one day he wasn't home for the lessons and they hadn't been able to catch him home since. So we stopped and knocked on the door and it was the girl! She was the original referral. So she let us in and talked to us and she's really cool. Her name is vianey and she's from Mexico. But she expressed her interest in our message and asked if it was something that would benefit her family and help her relationship with them. And we were all like OMG YES IT WILL WE PROMISE! So we talked about the church organizations for a while and how the gospel has blessed our families and set up a time to meet with her that week. 

Wednesday was rough. It snowed a tooooon. Like a ton. And it was freezing. Like less than 20 degrees outside. But anyway we had a lesson with our girl jade who's getting baptized this Saturday! Woo! We're pumped for her. Her dad recently was re activated and blessed the sacrament a few weeks ago! So he is going to be able to baptize her. She's so crazy and funny I love it. But we taught her about the word of wisdom and the law of Chastity and she was like I already knew that stuff. Of course I'll do it! Shes so smart and so awesome. 

Thursday was SOOOOO COLD YALL. SO COLD.  But we had another great lunch with an Ecuadorian lady in the ward. Her food is my fav seriously. She cooks the best rice I've ever tasted. We had some good chats then headed over to some less actives to visit, and we visited this lady Luz Gamboa and her sister who isn't a member and they are so sweet. Luz works a lot so she can't come to church as much as she would like. But her sister is awesome and really liked the message we shared about how we can complete our goals in this new year with the help of our Heavenly Father! Because he is always there and is always willing to help if we just ask for it. Then later we went to another referral who we haven't caught home at all. So we were walking up to the house to knock on the door but all the lights were out. So we were like uhhhh idk of we should. But then we noticed one light on in one of the basement windows so we were like nah. Let's just do it. And then it was her! Jessica was there! Milagros. Follow the spirit y'all. 

Friday was Día del Reyes! It's a Mexican holiday where they celebrate the 3 wise men coming and bringing gifts to Christ. But first we had a zone training with the 2 Spanish zones and we talked about having more fervent prayers for our investigators and the people in our area. That's been one of my goals for the new year and it's already been helping a ton. Y'all god really is there and hears our prayers! Then afterwards we came home and Ávalos and I had some bomb studies together. For my language studies we usually read the scriptures out loud in Spanish so that I can work on my accent and pronunciation, and we discuss them together in Spanish! It's sooooo good y'all. We read some bomb chapters in alma about when alma and amulek were talking about their missions and how all the miracles that they performed were from God. They couldn't take credit for any of it because they knew that He is always watching over them and was preparing people to receive the gospel.  But then we went to dinner with la familia Solís. One thing thats been getting me real good is that because my companion is Latina and brown, almost everyone we go talk to only talks to her and it's pretty annoying. They automatically assume my Spanish is bad (which it still isn't that great) and kinda don't really try and talk to me that much. Which I honestly understand. Haha I'm always wishing I was Mexican or something, but I'm not! So I've been working really hard on my Spanish for the past few days. Oh yeah and this dinner was great! We had this seafood soup stuff. And normally I do not like seafood but this was amazing! It had crab, shrimp, and tuna in it with lime and cilantro and omggg. I died. And then after we were so stuffed with food, we went to an appt with some less actives and they had MORE food ready for us. Haha omg. 2nd most full in my life after the incident on my second day in the field. Lol. But they made tortas, which is basically a Mexican panini and it was amazing. They had this cinnamon hot chocolate stuff with some other good stuff In it. Then we had rosca, which is this circle cake pasty thing and there's little plastic baby Jesus' cooked in it. And if you get one, you have to have a party and make tamales on Feb 2. So I didn't get any, but Ávalos did! She actually got 2, so she is going to teach me how to make them if she's still here...🏼. But the lesson was great! We taught them about service and how important it is for us to serve those people around is every day.

Saturday morning we had to wake up at 5am, because we had a meeting with President Maluenda, who is basically the mission president over the Spanish missionaries. Kinda. He's one of the presidents counselors. But we had a meeting with him and it was all in Spanish. And I was pumped bc I could understand all of what he said! But anyway he talked about how it's important for us to have faith like nephi. And he had a lot of faith. But he said we needed to exercise that faith and follow our schedule more obediently/work out every single day no matter what. And to also have faith to follow the spirit more closely. Which I thought we did but we can obviously do better! It was amazing seriously. Ávalos and I left sooooooo stoked and pumped up to apply what we learned. He challenged us to be able to do 3 sets of 100 push ups by the time we leave our mission. Omg. So we're gonna see if we can do that. 

Then on Sunday, it was fast Sunday and it was great! The testimony meeting at church was amazing. Everyone bore their testimonies on Jesus Christ and his atonement and what it could do in our lives and it was seriously so perfect. We had 8 people at church so we couldn't have asked for something better! After church we then had a meeting with the stake mission leader about some baptisms we have coming up and the ward. We have a really hard time getting members to come out with us. There's maybe only 2 families that ever do it. Our bishop and ward mission leader have been out of town for the past month and we have zero ward missionaries. So it's a struggle, but the bishop finally comes back this week so we're gonna figure some things out! But then at dinner, we ate with the Avilés family and they are from El Salvador/Nicaragua. And they are awesome! They gave us some really good referrals and their son is getting ready to turn in his mission papers so he said he wants to come out with us! Miracles! Right when we thought we had nobody haha. But then we had a lesson with this recent convert and her husband who has not been baptized. And they are from the same place in Mexico as my companion! But we talked about how at church we all teach and we all learn from each other. They expressed what they learned at church that they and their insights were great. They are awesome people! 

I love the mission y'all! It's so great to be able to meet with so many different people from all over the world and talk about the gospel with them. All of their lives are so different so their experiences with the gospel always get me so good. I hope everyone has a great week!

Here's some pics. 

Con amor,

Hermana Anderson

This week in a lesson with some recent converts! We went to temple square with them last week. They're so cute.

Mario flower pot thing stop sign 

When you get home at the end of the night and check the weather.... I'm telling y'all. I've never been this cold. 30 feels warm to me now.

Ávalos got the baby Jesus! 

Celestial tortas

Spirit animal 

Primas ️

Selfie right before our miracle on Tuesday 

week 9: Im not a temple square sister lol

Hola y'all! I hope everyone had a feliz Año Nuevo this weekend. This week was interesting. 

So last Monday was pretty crazy. It snowed a ton on Christmas so we went sledding the day after! So fun. Some elders bought some big inner tubes and they built a ramp at the bottom of a hill and everyone was sliding off of it. So dangerous but soooooo great haha. One of the elders even had a gro pro and we were all making videos and stuff. And then one of us had the idea of piling all the hermanas (6) onto the 2 inner tubes, interlocking the tubes, and then going off the ramp at the bottom of the hill. Probably not the smartest idea but we did it anyway. So we went super fast because there were so many of us and we all fleeewwwww off those inner tubes. One sister bruised her tailbone really bad and I figured out later I somehow sprained my ankle. But it's all good! great mems. The later that night our zone got together to play soccer, but I sat out bc my ankle. And then hermana Ávalos, mi compañera ended up hurting her big toe pretty bad while playing soccer so this past week we've both been walking with a limp. So funny haha. Then we went and had a lesson with this girl jade who is SO smart. She's 13 and is in all advanced classes at school, is in the orchestra and is the best violest at her school and even conducts her own little symphony thing. She's great. We have her set on date for January 14th and it's crazy how ready she is for the gospel! I love it. 

Tuesday was pretty good too! We had a lesson with a lady who's less active only because her husband doesn't like the church and she just wants to spend time with him while they can bc they both work a lot. Her testimony is amazing though honestly. Then we met with this guy who was a past investigator but got dropped for some reason. We met with him for a little bit and talked about his life and stuff. He's so awesome, but he said he would rather attend the English ward because he spoke more English than Spanish, so we passed him over to the other elders in our stake. Then we tried some other people that "weren't home" haha. They were they just didn't answer. But then we had dinner with la familia Llosa! And y'all they are SOOOO COOLL! They were from Peru and first of all, the food was amazing. Second, I was BIEN PUMPED BECAUSE I COULD UNDERSTAND ALMOST EVERYTHING THEY SAID 🏼 soooo pumped. They were telling us all about Peru and this weird Incan language that some people speak there. It sounded basically like Spanish gibberish. Then they gave us a ton of referrals to go visit, and we needed some sooo bad! We've been having a hard time finding new people to teach so that was good. Then we went to this family's house in the ward. The 2 young women live with their grandparents and one of them is a recent convert and she's been having some really bad depression issues. So we've been trying to help her but she hasn't really been letting us which kinda stinks. But we're always going to visit so hopefully she will come around. 

Wednesday was kinda normal. Not too busy but still stuff to do. We just tried to contact referrals all day and then we had dinner with a Dominican family! Their accent is so hard to understand. So I didn't really get much of what was said at dinner. I've come to notice that since there's a lot of Peruvians and Mexicans in the area, those are the accents I can understand the best. But there's also lots of people from Venezuela too and their accent is really hard and I don't get too much of what they say either. 

Thursday was SOOOO cold. Like so cold. Lots of people cancelled on us and that kinda sucked. But we had a lesson with Elida! She is going to be baptized on the 28th and her kids were baptized last year. The day she is going to be baptized is her one year anniversary of taking lessons with the missionaries! She's so awesome y'all. I'm pumped for their family. Then we went to visit this less active lady and apparently her husband removed his records from the church but she decided to leave hers and just not go anymore. Idk. She was really nice though and let us share a message still! 

Friday we went and tried to contact some more people. We got some referrals and went to go visit them to see how they are and try to set some appointments. We went to this one house and this guy was pretty angry to see us. He was talking sooooooo fast I didn't get anything other than Trump. Lol. But apparently he was mad and didn't believe in any churches anymore because a lot of members of the church and religious people in general in the US voted for trump, and he didn't understand how they could preach about love and kindness when they would vote someone like that as president. Idk. It was bad jaja. Then we had dinner and it was good like always. (Props to y'all who read this far bc I know this is long. Here's a really embarrassing moment.) So we were walking out to the parking lot of the apartment complex and there's our car and one parked directly in front that's the same model/color/everything. And so I was looking at the one that wasn't ours and I noticed some guy digging through the passenger side of the car. I immediately thought OMG SOMEONE IS BREAKING INTO OUR CAR! And so I yelled HEY!! GET OUT OF OUR CAR! And started to run to the car. Lol. Then Ávalos was like dude what are you doing! And I was like omg..... that's not our car. And then Ávalos just started dying laughing hahaha. Whenever I yelled the guy just looked up at me  and then continued to do what we was doing. I'm sure he thought I was on some crazy drugs or something.....haha. Then that night we went to temple square with some recent converts! I dint realize how big of a tourist attraction it really was until then. There were so many people there it was crazy. O

Then Saturday we went to temple square again! With another awesome recent convert. We took the tracks up to salt lake this time and stopped at in n out. So good. Apparently they have bible verses on the bottom of their cups, fry holder things, and the paper for the burgers! I thought it was so cute. Then since it was New Year's Eve, we had pday from 6-9. So we had an activity with our zone and we just chilled and played soccer. Me and Ávalos could play finally because our ankles were better. 

Sunday, the old stake mission leader who is now the bishop of an English ward asked us if we would speak in sacrament meeting. We spoke on helping others come unto Christ. Coming unto Christ is an invitation. It is the best invitation ever honestly. Inviting others to come unto Christ by partaking in his gospel is the greatest act of love and service yall could give to someone. This gospel brings so much peace into our lives and sharing that peace with others is the best! So I invite y'all to invite the people you care about to partake in this gospel. There is no greater feeling than knowing the love that Christ feels for us and knowing that we all will be able to return to live with our Heavenly Father again with our families. 

After our talks we went to our ward where they asked hermana Ávalos to translate for some people. Then in our Sunday school class the teacher didn't show up so we got volunteered to teach the lesson. Haha. Missionaries are good for everything I guess. 

I love y'all and I hope y'all have a great week! 

Con amor,

Hermana Anderson 

Here's some pics. 

Temple square con Miguel 

Temple square con familia Solís y Romina and Cynthia's family 

A

Homeless dude gave me some flowers 

Cute lil thing 

2nd time at in n out yummmmmmm 

They have scriptures on the bottom of their cups and it's really cute 

Selfie after weekly planning 

week 8: Feliz navidad y nuevo ano

Hola everyone y feliz navidad! I hope everyone had a great Christmas with their family and friends. This week was pretty good!

Most of last Monday was chill. We went and played soccer and volleyball with our district y the zone leaders and then went to get some bomb tacos for my bday dinner. Then we had a REALLY awesome lesson with one of our investigators Rachel. She's 15 and absolutely loves learning about the gospel and even told us that she wants to go on a mission too and she hasn't even been baptized yet! But anyway all week I was praying that for my bday I could see a miracle. The day was pretty chill and honestly I kinda forgot to look for the miracle that day to begin with oops. But we finished our pday stuff and went to Rachel's and taught her about the plan of salvation and we were telling her that all of it was able to happen because of Jesus Christ and his atonement. Without his sacrifice and love we wouldn't have any of it. And when i saw how happy she was when we were teaching her I just realized that this gospel is a miracle! Jesus Christ is our miracle and through him we're able to have the greatest gift of all, which is eternal life. 

On Tuesday We did some service for this less active lady in our ward by helping her clean out her basement. Then we went to a recent converts Miguel's house and then had a lesson with the little 9 year old girl that hasn't been baptized for some reason. We went and got to talking and since I'm still not the best at Spanish I didn't really get everything they were saying. Then we went on to the lesson and taught about the plan of salvation again and then left because we had to get home! It turns out that what my companion and her parents were talking about was that her dad was excommunicated for some reason and he was trying to get back on the right track so that he could baptize her. So now we are going to be teaching him the lessons with his daughter! 

Wednesday was pretty good.  Then we went to some other recent converts house (basement room actually) to teach them. They are so sweet. They are straight from Venezuela and seriously have almost nothing. They don't have a car and walk everywhere and they have 4 people living in 1 bedroom of someone in the ward. They somehow found out that it was my birthday and they bought me a whole large pizza and put some candles in it and sang to me. Seriously these people are the sweetest. 

Thursday was really slow. Almost everything we had that day fell through and when we tried to go visit people nobody was home! So annoying. But anyway then we went to dinner and they forgot about us and the wife wasn't even home... so we were like oh it's fine we can just go eat somewhere else! But the husband made us stay and to,d us that it would only take him 10 min to cook. Lol. It took him 30 min so we had to eat really fast. He also made us this beef stuff with fried eggs that were all runny and liquidy. I'm like super not a fan of those so when he gave us the food I was just thinking okay, I can do this. I'll just eat the egg first and get it over with. So I did, and then as soon as he finished he put another one on my plate! Yeah. That dinner was a struggle but it's okay. After we went and visited with some less actives that work a lot so they can't get to church very often but they're super awesome! And they fed us some really yummy tostadas. Sooo good. 

Friday morning I got a surprise visit from my aunt and cousins that live near by! That was really nice. Then we had our first district meeting of the transfer and it was really good! We talked about why it was necessary to have a savior and what it would be like if the world didn't have one! Not something I'd like to live with. Then again, everyone cancelled. We were supposed to have 2 lessons with some awesome people and then go caroling with some other elders and then go to temple square. Sooo we had like all day to fill basically. So since it was Christmas time there were tons of members giving us food and candy and stuff. So we taped a few pieces of candy together with Christmas notes and dropped them in the mailboxes of people in the ward and other  that we visit. Then our dinner forgot about us again that night and they didn't make us stay so that they could cook for us. So we just went out and got food! Then we went caroling with the elders and sang to some really nice people. This one lady even cried it was so cute. I love the people here! 

Saturday! Christmas Eve! Apparently they call it noche buena instead of Christmas Eve, and the red Christmas poinsettia flowers are called noche buenas. Haha. Anyway it was another slow day. Lots of people cancelled and nobody was home. So we finished dropping off the candies and then visited our fav recent convert Miguel for a little bit. He's great. Then we had dinner with what we thought was just a family at the church building. Turns out it was just a family but add all of the aunts and uncles and cousins too! Sooooo many people. They were so fun though. They set up a photo booth and a bunch of tables and had games and stuff. Latino people go all out  for Christmas Eve! They were all from Ecuador so the food was amazing too. One of the lady's that was in our ward, hermana Briones, was so cute and she invited us over for lunch the next day. Then after dinner we went home and watched 17 miracles with our roommate upstairs! It was a great time.

Sunday was Christmas and it was great! It was a pretty chill day. It was actually a white Christmas and by the end of the day we had about 2 feet of snow. Craaazzzzyy. I've never seen so much snow in my life! So they cancelled church because everyone was having a hard time getting around because the snow plows didn't come since it was Christmas... so me and our roommate Anna went out to shovel the driveway because she had to go to work that day. Then this really nice man with a snow blower( turns out that's a thing. It's like a leaf blower but for snow haha) came to help us out! He was so nice and he did everyone's driveway in the cul de sac for them. Great example of Christlike service, especially on Christmas Day! Then we kinda just chilled in our house for a while and watched a movie about the nativity. Then we Skyped our families! That was really great. I've missed them. And then we went to lunch at the Briones and the food was amazing again. Then we came home and watched another movie called War Room. It was sooooo good, everyone needs to watch it! Then we went to Christmas dinner with some people in the ward from Peru/Japan. Interesting mix! But it was cool and they were really nice. Then we had a little zone activity and hung out with our zone, ate some more food, and watched it's a wonderful life! Overall it was a great day. Even though we didn't do much i wouldn't rather be anywhere else. Being a missionary is honestly such a blessing and I'm so grateful for this opportunity y'all. I hope everyone has a great new year! 

Con amor,

Hermana Anderson 

Skyped the fam! 

Cute lady's from our ward that invited us to Christmas Eve dinner

Just call us santa 

The sunsets here are so good 

Best tacos omg lengua y carne asada 

Murruh crimus