April 14, 2014

Hello!

Crazy week! Lots of miracles! I feel like an entire month was crammed into one week...

 

So Monday we had a lesson with the Walters. They're a family in the ward who has a son serving a mission in Arizona. They're so great. We've been teaching them the missionary lessons ever since President Riggs has really been pushing for us to be teaching the members as much as we possibly can. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and the spirit was so strong. You should all look up "Earnest" in the Bible Dictionary. It says something about how we all feel the spirit as a little taste of what the Celestial kingdom will feel like. Or something like that. But it's really cool. Sister Udall found that in her studies that morning. While I was teaching that lesson, I felt so strongly about how happy I am that our family is going to be together forever. There is nothing that brings me more joy! I love you all so much!

 

We had a lesson with our Indian investigators. There's still a bit of a language barrier, but we use the book of Mormon as our way of communicating. it's pretty cool. We say something, they have no idea what we said, we find a scripture from the book of Mormon that explains what we were trying to teach, we match up the chapters from our English copies to their Hindi copy, and they read it and feel the spirit! IT's so cool! We still don't know how much they understand about Jesus Christ, so tonight we're going to go over and teach them about Him :)

 

We did a lot of finding this week. We are trying to talk to 20 people every single day, but we always fall short because we have great contacts with people and then run out of time to talk to others. But that's okay. I had a great experience from following promptings while we were out talking to as many people as possible!!! I had a thought to go tracting in Little Rocky Run. That's the neighborhood where some of our investigators live. As we were walking there, we turned the corner and they were outside sitting on their front porch!!!! We started talking with them and they said that they felt like they needed to come outside and they just sat down literally two minutes before we walked up. Pretty cool. So we started teaching them again and asked them what it would mean to them to know that there is a living prophet on the earth today. One of them, Jarret, replied, "I think it would mean that I would always be taken care of." And BOOM immediately, the spirit put Moroni 6:4 into my mind, which talks about how members' names are taken after baptism and they are nourished and always taken care of! And that lead open the door to extend a baptismal invite. We asked, and he firmly responded, "YES." It was so great. We're probably going to end up passing him off to a singles ward, but I am so grateful that Heavenly Father let me be a part of his conversion process.

 

Sister Zieger is one of the sweet ladies that I've written about before- she has bi-polar disorder and just needs people to talk to. She has had a ROUGH life. She's a recent convert to the church as of about a year and a half now, and she hasn't been paying her tithing. So Sister Udall and I made a goal for this transfer to help her pay her tithing. We've been meeting with her weekly and trying to help her see the blessings of it, but we haven't been having much success. So finally one night, she called us and really needed to vent about her problems. Haha. So we went over immediately and let her talk everything out. She's so cute. She just needs some love! Anyway, while we were talking to her, the conversation pointed toward her need to pay tithing. She told us about her financial problems and her issues with people at work and when she was done talking everything out, she took a deep breath and said, "I Just don't understand what God wants me to learn from all this. It's so hard." And the first thing that came out of my mouth before I had time to think was, "He wants you to learn to completely trust him and pay your tithing." Haha. I was kinda shocked that I had been so blunt, but it was exactly what she needed! She knows that I love her so much, so being bold with her let the spirit come in and take over. Two mornings earlier I put a tithing slip into my purse, so I left it with her and invited her to put it in a place where she would see it every day. At the end of the lesson, she said that she definitely had a lot to think about! It was a great lesson!!!!! I really do think that before I get transferred out of this area, she will pay her tithing!!!! I know she will!

 

We stopped by to visit our investigators from Iran. They said that they would come to our church if we went to theirs. They go to McLean Bible Church. It's a huge church out here in Virginia. And oh man, they hate Mormons so much. They have entire sermons about how we aren't Christian. It's hurts my heart. But Houshang and Kima think we're Christian, and they want to really understand what sets us apart. They're sweet. There's a bit of a language barrier there too, so we sang them some primary songs! We sang He Sent His Son and I Am a Child of God. They really liked it and said that we sounded like angels. :) Music really brings the spirit!!!

 

We had another experience with music! We were just singing and making beautiful harmonies as we were going door to door and we started to sing Count Your Many Blessings. Sister Udall said that the next door that opened we would ask to sing it to them! Haha! A sweet Indian lady opened the door and kindly explained that she wasn't Christian. Then we asked if we could sing for her! She got really excited and said, "Oh yes! Please come in and sing to my son who can't walk!" She lead us inside and downstairs to sing to her son who had torn all the ligaments in his ankle. Poor kid. But we sang to them and ended up talking about the temple somehow. She didn't invite us back, but she felt the spirit! We told her to look up the general conference talks online and she said she definitely would! We'll have to follow up in a few weeks.

 

I LOVE MY COMPANION SO MUCH! She is seriously the HARDESET worker that I know. Her desire to talk to people is so strong, and she has so much faith! She is definitely helping me to become better. We've had so many sweet, spiritual moments together and I just know that we are going to be friends for life. We work really well together and we really want to help each other learn and grow. Last night I told her that we are each other's number one progressing investigators. It's so true! The other morning, her studies were geared for what I needed in that moment. And I do everything that I can to help her too :) I just love her so much.

 

We've seen lots of miracles. We're still trying to find people and we're working as hard as we possibly can every day!

 

Oh hey! I went to DC today to see the cherry blossoms!!!!!! I tried to take lots of pictures for mom! I know how much she loves the pink trees! :)

 

Love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Sissy Anderson (as Brendan would call me!)

Sisters with Capital!  Still don't know how to rotate pics!  Ha ha.

Sisters infront of the Jefferson Memorial.

Julie and a tree.  Ha ha.

P-Day - ran into some other missionaries in DC

April 7, 2014 - Finally Caught up! Look for a New Post tomorrow evening! Enjoy your reading!

Hello! I don't think I have any pictures from this week...haha sorry! I'll try to be better about that for next week!

 

The days are all starting to run together. Sister Udall and I decided that a day feels like a week and a week feels like a day. Time is just so weird on a mission.

 

Well, I loved General Conference! I just love that we are blessed to hear from our prophet every six months. I KNOW that he is a man called of God! It's weird to think that I've watched two conferences on my mission...I've been out for six months! I still feel like I just got off the plane after the MTC. I know the rest of the time is going to fly by. I really wish it would slow down a little bit. I loved M. Russell Ballards talk about following up and missionary work! I think he was the one who invited families and missionaries to write each other about what they've been studying in preach my gospel! I LOVE that! We are going to strengthen each other so much. I'll start by sharing a little of what I learned today from my Preach My Gospel studies. :) Today I read about the Plan of Salvation in lesson 2 of chapter 3. I thought a lot about agency and how it really is a gift from God, given to us to be able to choose for ourselves. It shows how merciful God is...he doesn't want to force anything on us! Under one of the sections of scriptures to read and other gospel resources links to the lessons, there is the section of "agency and accountability" from For the Strength of the Youth pamphlet. It talks about how there are consequences for every single choice we make, whether it be good or bad. Immediately, I thought of Dad teaching me that very principle when I was really young. I'm grateful that I was taught such great principles in my home when I was little!!!!!! Now I have the chance to share it with someone who may or may not have learned the same thing when they were younger! :)

 

We had lots of miracles this week!

We met an older couple from India named Anita and Shashi Bagga. We found them about a month ago by accidentally knocking on the wrong door when we were trying to go visit one of our less active members. Haha. Of course, I don't believe in coincidences, so we went back last Monday evening to bring them a copy of the Book of Mormon in Hindi. They remembered us from before and were WAY excited about receiving a book about Jesus Christ written in their language. There is a little bit of a language barrier, but we communicate well enough to share what we know about Jesus Christ and how we can come closer to Him. Shashi, the hubby, speaks better English than Anita. But Anita is just the cutest!!! About half way through our lesson with them, she started saying things like, "I feel good! I feel happy! You make me happy! You come here to make me happy!" She said a few other things in Hindi and Shashi translated for us to tell us that Anita feels like we were sent to her from God. It was really touching. It's so cool to me that I get to be a blessing for God's children that come from all different places in the world. It just blows my mind! God is so good! I don't even have to leave the country and I get to teach people from India, Sierra Leon, Ghana, France, Brazil, Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador....... so many different places. It's such a blessing.

 

Tuesday we had a miracle lesson with one of our less actives. She home schools and is usually really distracted by her two children, ages 8 and 2. So our lessons are usually all over the place. But this time, God used me and the lesson went so much better!! I think that one of my gifts is working with kids. I love playing with them and talking to them- kids are just so much easier to be myself around! Anyway. Her 2 yr old son was sitting at the table going through some flash cards. Immediately, I had the thought to help him out! And of course, that was a prompting I had no problem following! Up to this point, the 2 yr old was really shy around me, but after playing with him and helping him with his flash cards, he really opened up and I was able to play with him and distract him well enough for his mom to feel the spirit while Sister Udall taught her about how we really do have a living prophet on the earth today. At first, I felt bad that I left Sister Udall hanging. haha. But at the end of our appointment, our less active that we were teaching really opened up and admitted that she does know that she needs the power of the priesthood in her life. Wow. The only thing that could have gotten her to realize that was the Spirit of God. My gift of distracting young children came to good use! I feel so good knowing that God used my gifts for the benefit of his children. It was such a blessing!

 

We had a lesson with a couple from Iran!!! They used to be Muslim, but were tired of it for whatever reason and decided to move to America to be Christian. They speak Farsi and we have trouble understanding each other. BUT! We found a man from our ward that lived in Iran when he was in the military and learned Farsi while he was there! Miracle!! It was amazing. I love trying to guess what they are talking about. Haha! We didn't get very far in our lesson with them because we were trying to explain the book of Mormon and how it compares and differs from the Bible. He keeps asking us why Mormons are different from other Christians is we keep saying that we are representatives of Jesus Christ. SO we are going to teach him the Restoration the next time we see them :)

 

Ether 12:27 is still my theme scripture. I'm learning and relearning how to be patient with the weaknesses that I have. And I'm learning how to put my newly found strengths to good use for the Lord!

 

Well that's all for this week folks! Sister Udall and I are miracle workers in the Centreville 2nd ward! I love working here in this area. We have great members. Ha, our ward mission leader is a dermatologist- he prescribed me some acne medication because my face is pretty bad right now. I told him I feel like a 13 year old girl haha. And a few weeks ago he polished my shoes! Brother Stark is seriously the greatest ward mission leader ever!!!!!!

 

I love you all!! I can't wait to hear about your Preach My Gospel studies!

Love

Sister Anderson

I just really like this picture of Julie!

March 31, 2014

This week was the best week I've had in a while! It was so great! I just decided to be happy! Haha. And Sister Udall and I work hard! :) We set a goal to talk to 20 people every single day. We haven't reached our goal yet, but because we are making the effort, the Lord is placing prepared people in our path.

 

Here are just some of the miracles:

 

1. We had a lesson with a less active couple that we've been trying to get ahold of since I was transfered into the ward! We taught them the Restoration and reminded them of their testimonies. We invited them to church, but I didn't see them. (That's okay though. They'll come next week!)

 

2. We felt strongly about tracting down a street of townhouses and found a guy who has already read the book of mormon! He said that he wasn't raised with religion, and so he's always been fascinated by it. He's explored many different churches. His girlfriend saw us talking to him outside and came out to talk with us too! We gave both of them their own copies of the Book of Mormon. The girlfriend asked about life after death because she recently lost a loved one. We were able to teach them the Plan of Happiness :) and set up a return appointment for this Wednesday!

 

3. After church we had planned to stop by a potential investigator that we met in the street in our appartment complex. We knocked on the door, and they let us right in! The lady that we talked to on the street went and hid in the kitchen, but her husband and son listened to us! It was really awkward at first, but it turned out really well. This family is Muslim so we talked about prophets and how we have a living prophet on the earth today. They said they would come to church with us this Sunday to watch general conference. They said if there was a living prophet today, they would definitely want to know!

 

4. Last night around 8:30, we were walking around to check on a few people that we had met, and the Lord lead us to a man who was on his front porch for a smoke break. Haha. We started talking to him - he's from Guatemala and is confused about why there are so many churches on the earth today. We taught him the Restoration and he said we could come back again!

 

We have been so blessed. These are just a few of the miracles we've had this week. God is so good. :)

 

Oh hey! I've been having success with online proselyting too! I have a few skype lessons set up for this week! :) Can't wait!!!

 

I have been watching Mormon Messages during lunch time and when I get ready in the mornings...oh my. Those videos are so inspired! It's been great to just pull up a video in conversation on the street and share it with people. It just adds so much! This morning I watched one of the Mormon Messages for youth about the priesthood responsibility to serve a mission. And Marie Bates is in it! I've seen this video before, but it was just so great to see her with a missionary name tag on. She's such a great example to me. Ya know, the first time I thought about serving a mission was after a young womens night at the Bates' home where she did a slide show presentation on her trip to Jerusalem. Grandma K was there with us and on the way out she said something like, "She would make an AWESOME sister missionary!" Haha. That got my wheels turning! And now here I am in Centreville, Virginia!!! It's really cool to see how my life has played out so far. :)

 

Keep reading the Book of Mormon! It's the greatest book in the world! Oh my. We had a member lesson with a family in the ward and we taught them about the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong! Theyr'e a newer family in the ward and they have three girls in middle school/high school. Their mom emailed us and told us that we have been helping them a ton. Their girls haven't been wanting to do Family Home Evening, and they're really struggling because they're still getting used to their new schools and the new ward... but it was the sweetest thing ever. It just makes me feel so good that I feel like I'm making a difference :) It's such a blessing.

 

I'm growing a TON, and I love it! I can't wait to apply everything I've learned on my mission to the rest of my life!

 

I love you all so much! I hope you are all seeing just as many miracles as I am :) 

Love,

Sister Anderson

 

Annie and Dan Palmer--YOU ARE THE BEST!!!  THANK YOU!!

Goodies!!!!  Yummm!

Happy Sisters - feeling loved!

A love not from Dan and Annie!

March 24, 2014

Transfers were on Thursday!!! I'm still in Centreville 2nd ward and my new companion's name is Sister Udall! I am literally a head taller than her...but she is so sweet! We were both trained by Sister Hansen! How cool is that?! Sister Hansen trained Sister Udall in the Great Falls ward this last summer. Sister Udall's been out for a little over 10 months and is a great missionary. She's really good at talking to people and has really strong faith! The night before transfers, I prayed really hard that I would get a new companion that would help me increase my faith and become a better missionary. Heavenly Father answers prayers. :) This is going to be a miracle filled transfer!

 

Miracles started happening the moment we were put together! We've been getting our members really pumped about sharing the gospel and giving their friends copies of the Book of Mormon or a Restoration pamphlet. We've been teaching them the missionary lessons, and then inviting them to share it before a deadline. We have them set the goal for themselves, and then we put it into our iPads with a timer on it so that we can follow up with them. So far it's working well! I'm excited to see what happens! Missionaries love setting goals!

 

Speaking of goals, Sister Udall and I made a goal to talk to 20 unplanned people every single day. Good goals are supposed to stretch yourself...and I definitely feel stretched. But as we work hard and put all of our efforts into talking to that many people, we will see miracles! I can't wait!

 

God has this way of putting his prepared people into the path of his prepared servants. We were getting into the car after checking on a less active member of our ward with our relief society president, Sister Heiner. (I just love Sister Heiner by the way. She has the sweetest spirit and is SO missionary minded! She is one who is truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ!) As I was getting into the car, this lady was SPEED walking right by me. I had literally a second to say something to her, so without having time to think I grabbed a pass along card and held it out to her and said, "Can I give you a card?!" She stopped in her tracks and said, "Sure! What's it for?" I went on to talk about how it is for Mormon.org and how great it is. She then talked about how she knows Mormons and loves them for who they are and what they stand for. She said she would be a Mormon by now if it weren't for her strong Catholic roots. She said if she converted, it would most likely kill her mother. She joked about how her friends say that she "already talks like a Mormon". :) It was so funny! We had a really great conversation. She said her name is Lolin and that she is here visiting her brother and his wife with her children for spring break. They're from Texas! Lolin said that she is going through a really hard divorce and tried to take her life. She said she went on a walk this evening with a heavy heart, and after talking to us her spirits were so much higher. We showed her a Mormon message that Sister Udall downloaded on her iPad, Mountains to Climb by Elder Eyring. The spirit was so strong. We gave her a Book of Mormon and promised her that it is the one thing that will help her the most through this hard time in her life. I do not have the words to describe how I felt. I will never forget this moment of my mission. I can imagine what a sight we were in that moment- four women all crying together on the side of the road. In this exact moment, I was God's hands. I am so grateful that the Lord put us where we were in that instant. I've never met Lolin before and I may or may not see her again in this life, but I love her so much! This experience helped turn my faith to knowledge. I can look anyone in the eye and tell them that I KNOW that the Lord directs this work. I KNOW that Father in Heaven knows our hearts, and he knows how to help us. I KNOW God is in the very details of our lives. And because of all these things that have been shown to me, I will do everything in my power to serve Him. Not that I wasn't working hard to serve Him before, but I have a new found urgency and love for this work. Miracles happen. And I get to play an integral part in them every single day. I feel so blessed that Heavenly Father chose me to serve him at this time and in this place.

 

We've had lots of other miracles too! Yesterday we worked really hard to talk to 20 people, but we only got to 10. We had so many meetings and other appointments that took a lot of our time...but when we were outside, we did all that we could to talk to everyone we saw. We saw a kid sitting on the swings in our apartment complex. He was way out of our way, but we went over there to talk to him about the gospel! His name is Gordon! He's 6 feet tall, and he's only 12 years old! Oh my. But we talked to him about Jesus Christ and how he is a child of God. Sister Udall's a pretty good singer, and right when we were put together as companions we'd agreed to use our talents more in our finding and teaching. So since we talked about how he was a child of God, Sister Udall was like, "Gordon, we'd LOVE to sing you a song!" Hahahahaha. And so we sang I am a Child of God. It was a little awkward. But it was great! It really invited the spirit! We gave him a book of Mormon and he seemed like he actually would read it! We're hopefully going to teach him again at the swings today! So pray for Gordon! :) and pray for his family that their hearts will be softened enough for us to come and teach them too!

 

:) I am so happy. I love this work. I love my companion. I love God! I love his children! I love my ward! And I love all of you! I hope you pray for and seek great miracles in your own lives- they're happening all around you every moment!

 

Love

Sister Anderson :)

 

 

The Sisters with Mary Rose - She has a lot of interesting items in her house!  Look below!

Sister McKee and the Lion!

Sister Anderson and the Lion!

Sister Anderson and something Gold!  Ha ha!

Transfer Day!



Sister Anderson's fourth transfer day!  Wow has it already been that long?

Sister Udall and Sister Anderson

March 17, 2014 - Weak Things Can Become Strong, I guess

This was a pretty good week. Again it was kinda slow for my liking, but we made a lot of progress.

 

My goodness, I'm learning so much about myself. Every single meeting that we have has been specifically for me and the things I'm struggling with. Not that I have huge struggles and problems or anything, but ya know. Growing pains. I know I'll be grateful for them when all is said and done. But going through them right now just hurts. As you all already know from your own experiences.

 

Our only investigator right now, Donna, is so sweet. We stopped by her house and taught her about Joseph Smith, and she just soaked it all up! She has these big blue eyes and she never breaks eye contact when we are teaching her! We invited her to come to a new member fireside that our mission puts on and she said she wanted to come! BUT last minute she had to back out because she was taking care of her neighbor's five year old. She's just so hard to get ahold of!!! But the lord will work everything out, I just know it! He loves her, and if he wants her to have blessings of this gospel at this point in her life, he will make it happen. :)

 

I love Centreville 2nd ward. So much. I love the families and all the kids and I just love everyone so much. The ward mission leader is the greatest! He is always asking how he can help us, I mean, last week he made me take off my shoes to shine them for me! Haha! He is giving us names of former investigators to go check on and he is so supportive. I couldn't ask for a better leader.

 

About my companion, we are doing well. This has been the hardest six weeks of my mission. The entire time I kept thinking to myself about how she is NOT humble at ALL. And she HAS to do things her way. Buuuuuuuut as it turns out, I've been the exact same way. We've spent hours on end talking about it and trying to fix it, but it wasn't until yesterday that our conversation was actually effective. We spent all day after stake conference just talking. And I cried, so you of all people (and dad haha) that the conversation was actually getting somewhere. I have no idea what will happen for transfers this Thursday, except for the fact that I know I'm staying here, but I'm just really sad that it took all transfer for me and Sister McKee to really get along. I'm really, really sad it had to be that way. I know that if we had gotten along a lot sooner, we might have seen a ton more miracles. This transfer has been really dry in terms of our teaching pool. And now I know why. My mission has been the most humbling experience of my life. I always felt like I was the one putting in all the effort in this companionship and that she wasn't doing anything. But I really wasn't doing enough. Yikes. This is something I know I'll learn and re-learn over and over again, but at least I have this experience to live by. I really hope Sister McKee and I have another transfer together so that we can put our newly found trust and unity to good use. It's all up to the Lord at this point, because I can see it going either way.

 

Sister McKee and I talked about the scripture in Ether 12:27. As a side note, I think it's kinda funny that I chose that verse to be the one on my missionary plaque. Haha. I just chose a random scripture because I know they needed one in order to hang it up on the wall... But even six months into my mission, it really has become a personal theme.

 

Ether 12:37 

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their ^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become strong unto them.

 

Especially since being on my mission, I'm doing my best to be exactly obedient in keeping ALL of God's commandments. I'm not letting myself pick and choose, but I'm keeping all of them to the very best of my ability. I'm trying so hard to not give into those excuses I make for myself, that everyone has. And by doing so, I'm truly coming closer to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm not saying this to toot my own horn, but to show how applicable this scripture has become in my life. The very first line of the scripture says that if men come unto Christ, he will show them their weaknesses. And as I've come unto Him, he's made a TON of my weaknesses known to me. I'm sure my weaknesses were known to everyone else, especially those in my family... but now I can see. Just like in the song, Amazing Grace, I was blind but now I see. It's not easy to have all my weaknesses thrown at me in such a short period of time. Haha- Sister McKee and I were talking, and we decided that there needs to be a fine print at the bottom of this verse that says PROCEED WITH CAUTION; WEAKNESSES HURT. A LOT. I'm learning how to be okay with the weaknesses I have as I work to overcome them. Like I said before, this has been the most humbling experience of my life. But if I take the medicine with a spoonful of sugar, The Lord WILL make all these things work out for my good! It's like working out my spiritual muscles- and right now I'm super sore! But I'm glad it hurts because it means I'm on my way to become more like Christ.

 

Anyway, enough of my sermon. hahaha! Sister McKee and I are doing really well. We are understanding each other and serving each other. I'm laughing again :) And things are just so much better! I was able to say "I love you" and really feel like I meant it.

 

So it snowed. Again. It always seems to snow on Preparation days. Haha. But today I have another chance to redeem myself for being lazy on the last time it snowed on pday. God is so good! Second chances are real! Haha.

 

I love you all! Sorry I don' thave too many stories this week, but that's because the Lord has used this time to break me down a little so that he could build me up even stronger. So I know that great miracles are on their way!

Have a great week!

Love

Sister Anderson

Sister Anderson with her St. Patrick's Day package. Brendan helped me pick out her goodies!  Whoohoo!  Had to include some green frogs!  Ha ha!

April 13, 2014 - Sorry, these are late

OK everyone, so I have to admit that I thought I was keeping Julie's blog up to date pretty well.  Come to find out I am a month behind!!!!  I am sorry that I have slacked!  I am back on it and there will be more to come.  Please forgive me and enjoy her letters.  Thanks!

March 10, 2014

This week was a tough one! It started out painfully slow. Monday we had a huge snow storm and were stuck inside. Mondays are Preparation days. So I could have used the time to clean the apartment, or organized my desk, or something to help prepare for the week. But no. I'm embarrassed to say that I sat around and did almost nothing. And oh my goodness. I do not know how I did that before my mission. It was literally painful to not be doing anything! Right then and there, I made a promise with myself and with Heavenly Father that I will NEVER be bored again. Ever. Even after my mission. No, especially after my mission. Time is so short. It comes and it goes. If we don't do anything with it, we are out of luck. In Alma 34:32 it says For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. Can I get an AMEN?! Oh my gosh. I will NEVER be lazy ever again. In Relief Society we had a lesson from the Joseph F Smith booklet. The lesson was about Faith and Repentance. There was a quote in there that said something about how procrastination is the thief of eternal life. That statement just hit me! In my past life, I was the queen of procrastination! But now that I've learned so much about my Father in Heaven, I don't want anything to stand in the way of my returning back to Him! I feel so strongly about this. (Ha. Mom and Dad- as you're reading this you're probably thinking, "FINALLY! It only took her going on a mission to learn that!" Well, yep. It really did take me going on a mission to learn it... But thanks for doing all you could to try to teach me that when I was at home. Using your time wisely is a good habit to be in. I'm sorry I never really listened before!)

 

So the first few days after that, I was making up for not doing what I should have with my time on Monday. And it hurt. I kinda felt like I was being punished for it! We FOUR lessons all right in a row on Tuesday after our missionary meetings, and every single one of them fell through. Yeah, that kinda hurt. I was so excited for each lesson, and made sure to practice teach and study up for each one! And then, nothing. Everyone decided that they had better things to do than meet with us. I mean, it's okay. Everyone has agency, and the world doesn't revolve around me, but it was still tough. I took it as Heavenly Father telling me that I really shouldn't have wasted my time. Since then, I have repented! Godly sorrow is a good thing- I will make sure I NEVER do it again!

 

Wednesday we had our technology training and were given our iPads! Pretty exciting stuff! I'm so excited to use mine to help move the work forward in my area! Not to worry, there are no games and only apps that are useful to our purpose as missionaries. We have our entire area book and planner in one app and can sync info to our companions! It's awesome. I love not having to carry around so many books with me all the time! I just have my iPad. :) Right after our tech training, we had to go all the way out to Sterling to get the tires changed on our car. I guess they were really bald or something and our vehicle coordinator at the mission office was freaking out. So we went to a place called Fire Stone Tires, left our car and went to a place with wifi. We found a frozen yogurt place a few stores over. As we were walking there, we passed a radio shack. I had a thought to look in to see how much a keyboard would be for my new iPad. I grabbed the first one I saw and asked the man working to check the price for me. I went back to looking around and about five minutes later, he came up to me and said, "yeah, this item is no longer in our inventory. So you can have it for free!" My jaw dropped. The other keyboards I was looking at were about 50 bucks. And he just gave this one to me for free. Talk about miracles!!! I was so grateful. Haha- I wanted to make sure it wasn't a joke, so I offered to buy something, or sign a piece of paper that said that I wasn't stealing..hahaha! But it was for real! I got a free keyboard! Oh my. It's been such a blessing- we have to type up every record that we've ever taken on every person we've taught and it's gone so much faster because of the keyboard! 

 

We've been working with a lot of less active members and they are all doing great. Oh! Thursday night, our appointment fell through and I felt like we needed to see Donna, one of our investigators that we haven't been able to get a hold of in a while. We dropped by her house and she was home! We ended up talking to her for a while. She is in her 50's, divorced, has two daughters who are 21 and 22. She is currently living in her aunt and uncle's place, renting out a room. She took her 22 year old neighbor and her 5 year old son under her wing because she got kicked out of her boyfriend's place. Donna is the sweetest, most loving person I know. She says that she has been reading the Book of Mormon when she's at work. Oh my gosh I love her to pieces! We were on our way out and she said, "Wait! We have to pray!" She likes to pray all holding hands in a circle. We sat there for a second waiting for someone to volunteer for the prayer. I thought Donna'd ask me or Sister McKee to say it, but instead she looked up at us with eager eyes and asked if she could say it. It was one of the sweetest prayers I have ever heard in my life. It was so simple. By the time she had finished, she looked up at us with big eyes and said, "did I do it right?!" I smiled so big my cheeks hurt and said that she did great! She reminded me of an innocent little kid that was looking for their parents approval. It was one of the sweeter moments I've had on my mission. Donna has been so prepared for this message of the restored gospel! I love her! Pray for her to find time to meet with us! The gospel will do her SO much good!

 

The week started out hard, but it ended really well. :) Heavenly Father is the perfect tutor, and He's teaching me all that I need to know to improve myself and turn my weaknesses into strengths. He sure does love me, that much I know. And He loves all of His children! He spoils us with blessings, and yet, we still ask for more. He's a good father and I love him! 

 

I love you all! 

Sister Anderson

Sister Anderson and Alexis

Sister Hansen and Sister Anderson - she gave no names for these two but they look nice!

Sister Anderson and Sister Gawthrop. She's wearing a Star Trek dress. She thinks it's awesome my sister's name is Belana! :) Sister Gawthrop also knitted me a hat with matching gloves to keep warm when it snows.



My ward mission leader, Brother Stark, polished my shoes for me yesterday after our correlation meeting! He said that he refused to let his missionaries walk around with dull looking shoes! Ha ha!!!