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 

week 7: milagro magna!

I cant believe I've been out for 6 days already! I'm in a town west of Salt Lake City called Magna. everyone says its super ghetto but i don't really think it is honestly! Iike maybe if you compared it to peachtree city because its definitely not as nice here as it is there. But i love it here! It's just a bunch of houses really, there's not much else. And theres SOOO many latinos here. Like so many. So that's great! I'm soooo excited to be here especially on my birthday. I guess turning 20 is cool! I'm 2 decades old.  I wouldn't want to spend my birthday doing anything else other than testifying of Jesus Christ. It's great!

Anyway i arrived here on Tuesday after taking the train from Provo. I was the only sister missionary to come out with my group. So we all loaded up on the train and when it came to our stop, we went down to the bottom floor of our car to get all of our luggage and stuff. The train isn't stopped for very long so we had to hurry and be really quick. One of the elders went back to get his 3rd suitcase on the train after he had gotten his 2 big bags out and then the doors closed and he got left on the train... haha some of you may know him. It was elder (Andrew) Lester. So since i was the only sister there i was going to be riding to the mission office with president and sister palmer! We waited there for elder Lester to call or come back or something and he eventually did about 45 minutes later. Poor elder haha. Anyway after that we went to the office to get all set up and orientated and such. My companions name is Hermana Ávalos! She is from Chihuahua, Mexico! She is sooooo awesome let me tell ya. She speaks perfect English and Spanish so she helps me a ton with trying to learn. We have a great time together. So after that we went to our house to get situated and unpacked and stuff and then we headed off to our dinner apt. We had dinner with this lady in the ward from Peru, and the food was amazing!! It was this spicy beef and potato stuff with rice and avocado salad (yuummmm). And she made this weird juice drink with pineapple and cinnamon and some other things that she said but i couldn't understand. It was kinda weird haha. But her accent and the way she spoke was soooo hard to understand. In the MTC i felt like i could understand Spanish pretty well when our teachers and our TRC investigator talked to us and stuff. So i got a nice slap in the face when i couldn't understand a single thing. It was really frustrating and overwhelming honestly. Anyway after dinner we went to teach this little girl who's 9 and her family is completely active but she just hasn't been baptized yet... weird. Her dad isnt able to baptize her for some reason that we haven figured out yet. And her knowledge of the gospel is surprisingly small even though she goes to church every single Sunday. Sooo we taught her the restoration and we drew out some pictures with her of all of the things in the lesson and it went really well! We actually taught her in English too which was really kinda nice after how i was feeling at dinner time. And then we went to some other peoples house and talked to them for a little bit and then headed in for the night.Wednesday we didn't have any lessons planned so we went and contacted some referrals and some members. First we went to this lady in the wards house who failed her drivers test last week and needed some help/practice with driving . So we did that for a little bit. I sat in the back and talked to the little kids while Ávalos helped her drive. It was a good time. And then we went to try the referrals and they weren't home. So we visited this less active lady who's really sick and honestly sounds like she's about to die.but we were talking to her and we asked if we could do some service for her and she asked us to clean her bathroom. We happily did that (thank goodness it wasn't that nasty) and then we sang  Christmas hymn with her. And after she was soooo happy it was so cute. And she gave us these necklaces with 2 hands and a heart around it. and seriously this family didn't hardly have anything in their house and you could tell that they were really poor but she still wanted us to have those necklaces. We tried to say no but she insisted. These people are so amazing. Next we went to our dinner apt and it was with this Venezuelan lady! This food is probably my favorite since I've been here. So first she gave us some horchata while she finished the soup she was making. So i drank a whole glass of it in the time it took her to finish and then she gave us really big bowls of soup and it was SOOOO GOOD. It was chicken with lime and cilantro and these dumpling things. Ugh omg. I could eat it every day. And so after the bowl i was kinda full but she made these bread things that were also amazing and put the really good white queso cheese in it and while i was eating that she asked if we wanted some more soup, and i said Si! Un poco poco por favor. Which means only A LITTLE! This lady filled my bowl all the way up. And when i was talking to Ávalos the day before she said that its super impolite to not eat the food that they give you and you should always finish the food on your plate. So im sitting there SOOO full and i have another huge bowl of soup and my bread and queso thing to finish. I have never prayed harder in my life in that moment for help to finish my food. So i started eating it as quickly as i could so as to try and not focus on my fullness and then i started sweating and getting light headed and i swear i almost threw up. By the good grace of God i finished and didn't throw up. Serious prayers answered man.and i learned my lesson to never ask for seconds ever again. 

Thursday was pretty good. We figured out a good language study schedule for me y mi compañera. We had lunch at this Ecuadorian lady's house and she was soooo nice. I understood like everything she was saying too!! I was so happy y'all don't even know. I'd been super frustrated because of my lack of understanding and my bad Spanish. So i was really stoked. And then we didn't have a dinner appointment that night and we went to this AMAZING taco truck. Each taco was a dollar and it was the best $2 i spent in my life. And then we taught a recent convert Miguel about temples. He is seriously amazing. About a year ago he felt like he really needed to come to the states and change his life because he was an alcoholic and did some other bad things. So he came to Utah because he knew someone here and soon after he found the church and loved it so much. He goes to temple square every Saturday because he loves the spirit that he feels there. But anyway we were talking about temples and family history with him and he didn't know that he was able to go and do baptisms for the dead right after he was baptized! He was so excited because he thought you had to wait a year. Which is right but he can still do other temple work which is awesome. So he went yesterday to get a temple recommend and we can go with him sometime this week for baptisms! Also after we went to visit this girl Rachel. She's 15 and her family is having some problems. But my companion and her old companion just recently started teaching her and her mom. Her mom isn't really into it but Rachel really is! She needs better influences in her lives and she says she really loves all of the young women when she goes to activities and stuff. So anyway i accidentally left our phone at home so we didn't realize that Rachel tried to call and re schedule bc she had homework she needed to do. But we dropped by and talked to her and she ended up already making arrangements for someone to pick her up for church on Sunday all by her self! She was sooo pumped to go. Milagros!

Friday we had a zone training  and a few companionships were assigned a few things about Jesus` birth to talk about. We were supposed to talk about the manger! So the manger is really significant to his birth. Mangers are something animals eat their food out of. I thought it kind of related to how Jesus is "the bread of life" and when we partake of his gospel we are spiritually nourished and through him and his atonement we are able to have eternal life! Explaining that in Spanish was a little rough but everyone got the message okay. Then after that we met with this lady Elida. SHe is amazing!! Both of her kids got baptized about a year ago and she's been investigating the church for about that time. A few months ago she didn't want to meet with the missionaries anymore, I'm not really sure of the reason. But right before i got here Ávalos and the old companion were trying really hard to get on elida's good side and were trying to get her to like them and she did! So we went to go see her and i think she liked me but idk. Anyway we taught her the first lesson and the spirit was reallllllyyyy strong. We both testified of Jose smith and the Book of Mormon and then at the end Ávalos asked if she would be baptized and she said yes!! She said that she knew that it was her time now and that she needs this in her life. Sooooo cool. Ávalos and i were SOOO pumped. Seriously i was so happy. And i still am. She's getting baptized on January 28th! 

Saturday was super cool. There was this thing called Luz de las Naciones at the conference center down town and it was basically this latino Christmas program that like every latino in the salt lake area goes to. It's huge y'all. So all day we were trying to get people to go because missionaries aren't allowed to go if you don't have a recent convert or an investigator there. So we knew Elida was going but she was going with some different member friends, and this different investigator Jade is going but also with someone else. So we were relying on Miguel our recent convert,. Only problem is that he has a mexican phone service and we cant call him, he can only call us. So we were going to different members homes all day trying to figure out how to get a hold of him. We remember telling him about it in our previous lesson and didn't remember if he said he was going to go or not. So we couldn't figure out how to get a hold of him so we just decided to go anyway. We were praying so hard that he would call us and when we were on our way up there he did! And he was already there!! Milagros! So we went and it was soooo cool. So many Mexicans there it was cray awesome. Hermana Ávalos was sooo happy bc she misses Mexico a lot. This is her first Christmas not in Mexico because last Christmas she was serving in Mexico City waiting for her visa to come to the US. Also Saturday before we went, we had late lunch with some Chileans in the ward! They were a cute older couple and the lady had just had foot surgery so they haven't been able to decorate their house for Christmas. So we helped them set up their tree and some other decorations around the house and it was so great! The tree was really pretty. And before she left she surprised us with some scarves she knitted for us that week. Latinos are so nice. I am seriously in love with them! 

Yesterday was my first day meeting the ward and everyone is pretty cool. Rachel and Elida came to church so that was great! They are so awesome. The bishop gave me a nice surprise and invited me to go bear my testimony in that very moment on the pulpit. I don't even remember what i said i was sooo nervous haha but it was okay!  And we had dinner with elida too. She told us all about the different types of food they have in Peru and stuff. Apparently tortillas are a Central American thing and nowhere in South America really uses them other than if they're making Mexican food! So crazy! But we just talked to her and go to know her and her kids and she's great. After we visited this family that just recently came here from Venezuela. Idk if y'all know what's going on down there but it's really bad. The government is taking peoples money and there's hardly any food. So please keep all of them in your prayers! Anyway we talked to them for a little bit and their youngest daughter who's 9 got baptized maybe 2 months ago. Shes sooo crazy just like Cody but its funny. It was a good little visit. 

I love y'all and hope everyone is doing well. Everyone have a feliz navidad and enjoy the time with our families and remember the reason for the season! 

Con amor,

Hermana Anderson

Week 5 -to fun

Hola everyone! 
This week has been great just like every other week.
First off, I don't know why but I swear everything is funnier in
Spanish. And they have verbs for EVERYTHING. The funniest one I think
is the verb divertidar means literally "to fun". I have no idea how to
exactly do fun but yeah!! I laughed at that like all week. And there's
this funny finger nod thing that our maestro does whenever we ask a
question and the answer is yes. Apparently it's a Latino thing but I
swear it's the funniest thing ever!

Last Tuesday one of the elders in our district has done some family
history and found some names of his ancestors that needed to be
baptized. He asked me and hermana Budd to be baptized and confirmed
for them and I was seriously so honored! It was a really great
experience for both us and him to be able to further his family's work
and to help them receive the gospel even after they were already dead.
Temple work is seriously amazing. After that we came home and did some
laundry, played volleyball, and sang in the choir for the devotional!

Wednesday we had another lesson with our awesome investigator Brian! I
looovvveeee meeting with him because I can tell he really soaks up
everything we're teaching him. We were really struggling with figuring
out what he needed to hear that day so we kinda just half decided on
teaching him about the commandments that God has for us and obedience.
We didn't really know what we were going to say other than that or
what commandments we were going to teach him. So we got in there and
ended up talking about repentance which we didn't plan on, but we were
talking about how when we repent it's honestly not a bad thing at all.
Repentance helps bring us closer to Christ and helps us realize what
we need to work on and how exactly we can apply the atonement in our
lives to better ourselves. So he asked how exactly one goes about
repenting and in my broken ish Spanish i tried to explain that when we
repent we have to truly feel sorry and wish to improve ourselves. We
have to realize that we are not perfect and that some things we have
done are wrong and have to be fixed. We pray to our Heavenly Father
asking for forgiveness and after that we have to try our very hardest
to not do it again! I'm not exactly sure how it came out to Brian. But
after I said that he was like okay I have to be honest with y'all. So
he proceeded to tell us about his addiction to coffee and how he knows
that the things we have been teaching him are true. He is always
talking with his Mormon friends and his sister and he knows that if he
is drinking coffee he cannot be baptized because it doesn't follow the
word of wisdom. So we were right earlier about feeling kinda that he
needed to hear about the commandments! So we told,him that he was
absolutely right but with the help of God and the atonement of Jesus
Christ he could do it! It would definitely be hard but the blessings
that he would reap from baptism would be so much greater than he could
ever imagine. Keep in mind that I'm like pretty sure I said all this,
but I don't know how it actually came out sooooo haha. But yeah so he
gave us all these excuses of how he hasn't been able to stop and how
he's tried and just literally cannot stop drinking coffee. And I was
honestly just so frustrated and mad that he that he couldn't stop!
Nothing is impossible with help from God. So we finally just left him
with our testimonies of that and I shared Ether 12:27 about weaknesses
and how God gives us them so that we can overcome them and become
stronger.

Thursday was the first day of December and I can't believe how fast
time has passed! We taught someone over skype that lived in Puebla,
Mexico. This man was a member and he was pretty chill. We taught him
about how Christ was the ultimate example and how by serving others we
help bring a little joy into their life and we come closer to God. It
was great! We got to meet his cute little 6 year old daughter that
came home from school when we were talking to him. I could understand
her soooo much better because she spoke a little more slowly and her
vocabulary was a little simpler haha. But yeah it was cool! And the
whole time we were skylight we could only see his forehead so we
didn't actually know if he was watching us or not. Whoops. It was good
though!

Friday was our last lesson with Brian 😭😭 I've seriously loved
teaching him so much. He was always so understanding with our bad
Spanish and always listened to what we were teaching. Budd and I
decided that what Brian needed was motivation to stop drinking coffee
for this lesson. We have already asked him if he would be baptized
before and he said yes but we didn't set a date for him to go through
with it yet. We decided that we were going to ask him to be baptized
on December 24th Christmas Eve! We got in there and taught him
specifically about the word of wisdom and how it is modern day
revelation given to Joseph smith about how to protect our bodies and
what kinds of substances are good and bad for us. We told him the
blessings and told him that if he was obedient he could have those
forever! So cool. Then we asked him if he would be baptized and he
said that it was really soon and didn't know if he could do it. I
swear I have never cared so much in one moment than I have in my
entire life. I poured out my whole heart and soul to Brian and I just
wanted him to understand that nothing is impossible with God!!
Nothing! He just had to rake it one day at a time and pray for help!
He said that he would try his hardest to be ready by that day. A lot
of times these TRC investigators that we teach are fake and are
already members but I honestly didn't even care at that point, I'm so
glad that we have gotten to teach him over the past few weeks. I've
learned so much from him during those lessons and I wouldn't trade it
for anything.

Saturday was cool. We just had regular normal classes and stuff. We
said goodbye to the departing districts and hung out with them before
they all left on Monday/today. That night all of the hermanas in our
zone we're chilling in the living room telling embarrassing stories
and we're talking about their lives back at home and stuff and it was
great to get to know all of them!

Sunday there were like a million devotionals and meetings and stuff.
The only things I can remember that stuck out to me were in the first
devotional the MTC president talked about how important it was for us
to always testify of Christ and that he is the savior of the world. He
said that any meeting or lesson without it is one that's wasted. Since
we wear his name over our hearts every day we should be sharing
messages about him. Then that night we watched the annual Christmas
devotional and watched all of the general authorities speak. Honestly
the only thing I can remember from that whole thing was Henry B
Eyerings testimony at the end. He bore a special witness of Jesus
Christ and testified that he is the son of God and that because of his
birth, the world has never ever been the same again. So cool. the
Christmas season is great.

Monday was chill. Just mostly did Spanish and had our classes like
normal! Our teacher hermano hicks is awesome. At the end of our class
with him today he told us that we could just ask him questions about
the mission and like what to expect and stuff. All week I've been
super worried and kinda frustrated with learning Spanish and kinda
hoping that I would eventually become fluent because at this point it
doesn't really feel like it. And plus our whole district is staying in
the US and won't be completely immersed in the language. So someone
asked about how he thought it was going to work for us learning
Spanish and all. He told us that his mission president promised him
when he got out that if he read the Book of Mormon in Spanish and only
in Spanish they he would learn the language. He said that it took him
2 months to read it and at the end of the 2 months he knew Spanish. He
told us that if we did the same thing it would work for us too. So I'm
going to do that and I'm hoping and praying that I can do it!

Hope y'all have a great week! 
Con amor,
Hermana Anderson