May 19, 2014

This week really was a roller coaster! I am so glad it's preparation day so that after I am done writing this email, I can go home and recover mentally and physically.

 

Monday we saw Donna Woods. It was a great lesson. Our lesson went something like this:

"Donna, will you be baptized?"

"Mormon?........maybe."

"We're holding a baptismal service on May 31st, will you prepare yourself to be baptized by that date?" (boom. right out of preach my gospel, thank you very much)

"Hm. Yeah I think so. I mean, I'll need to prepare. And my daughters were raised Catholic, so they might think I'm crazy...but I am an adult and I make my own decisions! And I feel peace whenever you come over and compared to the catholic church I used to feel flat, but now I just feel so much peace after you leave and whenever I read the Book of Mormon....."

 

After we asked her to be baptized on may 31st, she went on for at least 10 minutes just talking herself into why she should get baptized. I didn't have to say a single thing after that. Man, i just love how the spirit works.

 

So Donna's on date for baptism! Pray extra hard for her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We actually changed her date to June 14th because she hasn't come to church yet. But she has so much faith and is willing to meet with us twice a week to teach her and help her prepare! It feels so great to be God's hands.

 

We got a referral for a new investigator just this last Friday from another set of sisters in another area. They told us all about Christi and how she is going through a divorce and is currently living with her best friend in our ward boundaries. We went over and met her and she is the sweetest lady ever! Almost immediately after I introduced myself she said, "I need to be baptized before June 1st." ......... :D :D :D OKAY!

She was ready to be baptized two years ago, but the week of her baptism, her husband decided that he didn't want her to be baptized. So now that she's separated from her husband, she can actually move forward and she's so excited! The only thing is that she probably can't be baptized by June 1st because of her situation. Like I said she's living with her best friend away from her husband and children and she was left with literally nothing.  I don't know the details, and frankly, even knowing THAT much totally stresses me out, so I'm totally okay not knowing anything else.

 

Anyway... so they're going to court this Wednesday and Cristi made it seem like she needed her clothes from her home right away. So she gave us her husband's phone number to see when a good time would be for us to come over and pick up her things. Her husband lives in Herndon, which is definitely out of our area, so we couldn't go. but our relief society president, sweet Sister Heiner, volunteered to go for us. It was just totally crazy and I felt that we were stuck in the middle of everything. yesterday turned into a "help Cristi get her clothes for court" day and I did NOT like it one bit. I hate being the middle man. I was so stressed out. I am still totally stressed out. I can't even put everything into words that's how scared I am. we just decided to back WAY off and not worry about it. Cristi said something about how she might need to use those text messages in court and that really freaked me out. I really don't want to get tangled into all of this. divorce is nasty. It makes me sick. I made myself sick with stress yesterday. I PROMISE that I will NEVER get a divorce when I am older. It just isn't an option for me. It is so hard and stressful.

 

Cristi has no idea how much she put me through. But whatever. We had a lesson with her last night and Sister Heiner was our member present. I was so grateful that she came along with us. It was a really good lesson. I feel that Cristi really is sincere about joining the church, and that she is not joining it for the wrong reasons even though her circumstances might make you think that she is. Her heart truly is in the right place, she is just going through the refiner's fire right now.

 

Don't worry about us though. We are getting members involved. We have the Relief Society president and the Bishop helping us with this. AND President Riggs is a lawyer, so he will be able to help me. Oh my goodness, this entire situation just makes me want to cry. I'm really really trying to be smart about how I help Cristi so I don't end up tangled in the mess. I just want to do missionary work!!!!!!!! really bad! I don't like this kind of drama! I just don't know what Heavenly Father's plan is with all of this, and I just really need to trust him.

 

Elder Ballard came and spoke to our mission on Saturday!!!!! I was herded to the back of the room, so I didn't really see him very well. but it was still extremely powerful to be in the same room as him and hear his voice in person! We had a three mission conference- we were with the Maryland Baltimore Mission and the Washington dc North Mission. There were 760 missionaries there. I felt like a warrior in an army! It was so cool.

 

I really needed to hear Elder Ballard. I felt like everything that he said was customized exactly to what I needed. It was amazing. After that conference, I have taken my missionary work to a whole new level. I am going to do everything in my power to be a preach my gospel missionary. I eat, sleep and breathe Preach My Gospel.

 

One thing that he said that really stood out to me is that if we want to baptize more, we need to talk to more people. I was like YEAH! I mean, it's true! I haven't helped a single person (that I know of) get baptized. and President Riggs received revelation for our mission that every area can get one baptism per unit per MONTH. :O I want to be a part of his revelation! man oh man I really want to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I NEED to talk to more people. Elder Ballard said that whenever we struggle with talking to people just think, "this isn't Gethsemane, this is a privilege!" I loved that. that's what I tell myself whenever I start to question whether or not I should talk to someone, and I feel the fear and do it anyway.

 

There was another speaker who related missionaries to the wave in the phrase, "catch the wave". He made a really cool analogy with surfing. He talked about how the missionary force has increase significantly in the past couple of years and we need to help the members get involved. We have to be careful not to drown the members, but to help them catch the wave in just the right spot so they can surf perfectly! That's how the work is going to hasten! I loved that. 

 

After that mission conference, I just felt strongly that I need to change. I need to take my own commitment to serving the Lord to a whole new level. I need to push myself out of my comfort zone to where I thought I'd never go. I need to truly sacrifice for Jesus Christ. I need to be the kind of missionary that he can count on. after we got home, I went into the closet and just told heavenly father that he has my entire heart. I have nothing holding me back from being what he needs me to be!

 

I had a really great week. it was a hard week. but I learned a lot! I might actually have my first baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please keep Donna and Cristi in your prayers. that would mean the world to me. they need all the heavnly help they can get at this point.

 

I love you all so much! 

Till next monday.

Sister Anderson 

May 12, 2014 - Day after Mother's Day!

Is it bad that I don't feel like writing an email this week? Haha. I feel so blessed that I got to see everyone yesterday! It's just taking so much energy to try to think of everything that happened this week.... Let's see.

 

We had a lesson with a man named Richard. I'm writing a blog post about him on my personal missionary blog I'll post on my missionary Facebook page, so you can read about him there. I had a really profound experience in that lesson. Richard won't be accepting this gospel any time soon, but he's now one step closer. Toward the end of the lesson, he asked me what I would say to Jesus Christ right now if I died in this moment. I had to think. Hm. What would I say? I told him I'd say something along the lines of... I love you! I did my best to serve you and my brothers and sisters!.... Since I'm emotional, of course I cried. But after the lesson his question stayed with me. What would I tell Jesus Christ if I died right now? The more I thought about it, the better response I now have. I'm home. That's what I will tell him. Thank goodness I don't think I will die today. But I feel like I have really done everything I can to become like him. I feel like I would be comfortable enough in his presence to tell him that I am finally home. I want to live my life in such a way that I will always be in a place to be able to tell him that.

 

We taught a weekly Book of Mormon class on Tuesday night. We alternate teaching each week with the Elders. But this week was great. Only three people showed up- kinda bummed about that...but it was still a great lesson. Brother Stark, Sister Hughes and Kimberly Neal were there. Brother Neal is a returning member who has completely turned his life around. I cannot remember for the life of me if I have told you about him already, so if I have, oh well. Haha. but I have never met anyone in my life that is been living proof of the atonement of Jesus Christ as much as this man is. He was about ready to take his own life when members of the ward reached out to him in love and helped him turn his life around. It's such a touching story. He still looks a little rough around the edges, but his heart is 100% in the gospel. He doesn't know any of the Bible or book of Mormon stories, so he asks lots of great questions and is soaking up everything we say! It's amazing.

 

We went and did service for a less active lady who broke her foot. We wound up taking an entire hour cleaning her kitchen floor. Heavenly Father is definitely trying to teach me how to have good clean habits. I will never let my future home get that messy!

 

Sister Udall and I have been having so much fun together! I don't know what it is, but I think I just decided to be 100% myself around her. I mean, we were really good friends before this week, don't get me wrong, but I just decided that if she was going to help me become a better person, I needed to open up my heart! And since then, we have been laughing all the time. We had a conversation where I was pretty much BEGGING her to tell me what I do that bothers her. She is just the sweetest person ever and doesn't like to make people feel bad. But we made an agreement to be honest with each other. It's like the story of the current bush. At the end of this transfer, we are going to look at each other and say, "Thank you for loving me enough to cut me down!" I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has blessed me with a true friend. :)

 

I love being a missionary. I know I am meant to be here. I know that I am doing the lord's work, and in turn, he is blessing me and helping me become a better me. :) I truly just want to be more like the savior, so that when the time comes for me to meet my maker, I'll feel right at home.

 

I love you all! Have a great week! Keep reading the Book of Mormon!! I know it's hard to remember and life gets in the way, but when you make God a priority, God HAS to bless you. He said so himself in D&C 82:10- I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.

 

Love ya!
Sissy Anderson :)

Sister Anderson and Sister Udall playing Barbie's with an investigator's daughter. 
I bet Julie had a GREAT time!

This is HAIR!!!  So during our Skype chat Julie told us that she was standing in water up her ankles and was tired of it, so she took the tub plug off and cleaned out the hair.  This TOTALLY grossed her out!  But now her shower is perfect.  At least I taught her something!  Ha ha.

 

May 5, 2015 - NEXT WEEK IS MOTHER'S DAY!!!

NEXT WEEK IS MOTHERS DAY AND I GET TO SKYPE YOU AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even believe how fast the months have flown by. Christmas feels like it was a few weeks ago! haha!

 

We have had the craziest week. We worked a lot with our less active members...and it would be really easy to feel like we were taken advantage of. But they are a part of Christ's church and NO effort is wasted when trying to help them come back!

 

We had a "lesson" with Mercedes...She told us her entire life story about how she joined the church when she was 20 and then went inactive when she moved to a new ward because it wasn't as welcoming. That was a testimony builder to me to love and welcome EVERY single person that comes to church. So now whenever I see a new face in our ward, I go up to them immediately. And I am going to make a very conscious effort to do that when I get home from my mission especially!! It means more when it comes from the members rather than the missionaries. I mean, it's the missionaries JOB to make sure that all of God's children are accounted for. But I am going to be the BEST fellowshipper when I get home! I promise!

 

Anyway. SO Mercedes is totally trying to convert us to the McLean Bible church. It's really funny. Her husband, Mike, gave me a cd of his pastor and told me to listen to it. I can't listen to it now, but I am curious. I always save everything that other people give me to convert me to their churches. :) I have a few pass along cards from the McLean Bible church and some protestant churches from people that I've met on my mission. I think it's so interesting! I mean, I'm giving out cards to invite people to MY church, so I'll take their cards too. I'm going to make a big scrapbook after my mission- I'm so excited!

 

We also met with Sister Fuentes, another less active member. She made us dinner...and we watched her make it. We talked with her about the gospel as she literally DUMPED in a pound or more of garlic into spaghetti sauce. I mean, it was good, but afterwards Sister Udall and I could NOT talk to each other because it smelled so bad. And we kept burping too- we figured that our bodies aren't used to that much garlic in our systems. hahaha it was so funny!

 

Anyway. But both of these lessons with our less actives were really hard. They both took two and a half hours.....and we are specifically trained to be in and out of an appointment after 45 minutes. It was rough. I just felt taken advantage of, and we weren't as productive with our time, in terms of talking to as many people as we would have otherwise. But these women needed it. We won't let it happen again in the future, but we helped them. They just needed to talk. The next time we meet with both of them, we are going to lovingly make very clear our purpose as missionaries and as them if they will let us teach them our missionary lessons. :)

 

As I've told you multiple times, our mission is really focusing on teaching the members. It has been going so well! The purpose of teaching members our lessons is to help them to be thinking about the doctrine of the church all the time so when they have missionary opportunities, they are ready and prepared to share the gospel. And then eventually invite their friends to take the missionary lessons!!! The most spiritual lessons that I've had this week were with members. Dorothy Greenhalgh emailed you... we've been meeting with them and I just LOVE those girls SO much. Every time we get out of a lesson with a family that has teenager, Sister Udall tells me that I will have a future calling in the youth program. I sure hope so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVED young womens. I had great leaders that really helped me, and I want to pay it forward! As we were leaving the Greenhalgh's, Sister Greenhalgh called out after us, "Thanks for always coming over! Maybe next time we'll invite someone to come to our lesson!!" :) Missionary work is totally on their minds. I love it!

We had another great member lesson where we SANG almost the entire time! Sister Gawthrop came with us to a lesson in her neighborhood last night and the lesson fell through. SO as backup, she invited us in and started to sing hymns. She LOVES to sing. And so do I! Sister Udall had a great idea to sing a song related to the plan of salvation and then discuss the principles taught afterward. That was probably my favorite lesson! I learned SO MUCH and the spirit was SO strong! I love that I can teach the missionary lessons in SO many different ways. I can sing-teach! :) :) :) :)

 

We've been doing a lot of service lately too. There is a less active lady in our ward who broke her foot and we've been going over every now and then to help her clean her house. She's kind of a hoarder, so I get grossed out and then get into CLEANING MODE. I think God is preparing me to be as clean as possible for when I have my own home someday. :) I actually enjoy cleaning now- I know crazy!

 

We also helped a lady in the ward who is SO pregnant and going through a divorce (saddest story ever) clean her car. She has two other daughters who are ages 5 and 8 who take advantage of her and don't help her at all. Anyway, her daughters were taken away from her for whatever reason and she was left with a terribly messy van- just imagine the back of the big red toaster van and multiply it by 10. It was so bad. But we cleaned it all for her so that she would have a clean car to take her new baby boy home in. :) And another surprise- I actually like cleaning out cars too! (God really has been changing me!!) haha!

 

Well. I hope you all have a great week. AHHH I can't believe Brendan's going to be ordained a DEACON. wut. That makes ME feel old!! Dayle looks soooo good in his prom pictures and I'm so happy Belana got that monster scholarship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I love you all so much and I can't wait to see you next week!!!

Love,

Sister Anderson

District

Elder Hansen district leader.  They are the only Sisters in their district again!

Visiting VA Bluebells on Preparation Day with the Hermanas!

Ha ha!!! I can't believe I missed this one! April 21, 2014 - Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this season so much. This is definitely the most spiritual and testimony strengthening Easter I've ever had in my entire life!

 

Our investigator, Jarret came to church with us!!! We had set up ahead of time for one of our members who is a brand new returned missionary to fellowship him. His name is Mattson. He came up and sat right next to Jarret and was immediately his best friend. In that moment waiting for the meeting to start, I was just completely overcome. THIS is why Christ died for us. I was so happy about helping Jarret come closer to Christ by coming to church with us and seeing the power of the priesthood in action through the sacrament, and then to see Mattson love and welcome this complete stranger just hit me- this is Christlike love in action! This is what it's all about! Oh, and I forgot to mention, I've had this head cold all week and I completely lost my voice!!!! So I tried the best that I could to express the happiness and love I felt to SIster Udall in that moment, but since my words were literally failing me, the tears just started rolling. And they were the happiest tears in the entire universe. I spent the rest of sacrament meeting with silent tears streaming down my cheeks. I don't even care what anyone thought!! It was the greatest Easter Sunday I've ever had. The Easter bunny and egg hunts are part of the fun, but since I was separated from all of that, I got to really focus all my energy on the savior. During the meeting I had a silent testimony meeting- just between me and Heavenly Father. I know that Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I feel it so strongly, and I wish I had words adequate enough to help every single person in the world feel the same way I do. But I know it with all my heart and I will serve him for the rest of my mortal and also my immortal existence!  

 

We had so many miracles this week! We found SIX new investigators! That is my own personal all time record! Holy cow! I mean, hey- I'm used to getting way excited over 2! But we had 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm just over joyed and I don't know what to do with myself! We have a current total of 17 investigators that we are working with. Five weeks ago at the beginning of the transfer, Sister Udall came here and we had 3. I am so grateful for a companion who is willing to work with me in serving the Lord and his children. We see miracles because we hardly let a single person pass us by without at least telling them that God and Christ love them. I have really learned the value of hard work! And in reality, talking to people isn't really work! It's fun to tell them about the Restoration of the gospel.

 

Okay, I have a HUGE miracle to share this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we had just finished having dinner in our apartment and we were headed out for the evening. We didn't have any solid plans for the rest of the night, but we were going to try to find more people to teach and maybe check on a few members. We were literally about to turn out of our complex, when Sister Udall (who was driving) had one of those moments where she could have stepped on the pedal and gone, but she hesitated in that moment, so we had to wait for a few more seconds in order to turn. And I have never been more grateful that she hesitated than in that very moment!!! We were waiting to turn left onto Trinity Parkway, but there was a little white car speeding along coming from our right and went into the turn lane to turn left into our apartment complex. For whatever reason, the moment that little white car came into my view, I literally couldn't take my eyes off of it. Right when it turned in front of us, I caught sight of who was driving. And then I KNEW that the spirit kept me focused on that car for a reason. Immediately I was like, "SISTER UDALL THAT WAS DONNA HOLY COW SISTER UDALL WE NEED TO TURN AROUND AND FOLLOW HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHH!" hahhaha. This is where my creeper instincts totally kicked in. And I'm sure glad they did!

 

So. Donna was our investigator when Sister McKee was here. She has been SO hard to get ahold of and we hadn't seen her in months, so literally two days before we had decided to "drop" her to give her a break until the time was right for her to meet with missionaries again in the future. I think part of the reason I recognized her so quickly is because the last time we had a lesson with her, I told myself that she reminded me of my cousin Alyssa! So when I saw her really quickly in passing, I saw Alyssa and I KNEW it was Donna driving. Isn't it just amazing how the spirit works sometimes?!

 

Okay, so Sister Udall turns the car around, and we try to drive in the direction that we saw Donna turn. I was scanning the parking lot EVERYWHERE for that little white car, and when we finally found it, we saw Donna walking up some stairs with some groceries in her hands. I was so confused. I thought, "Um, Donna doesn't live here...Did she move? Is that why she's been to busy to meet with us?" I was so confused. We didn't see the exact apartment that she went into, but we knew she was on the second floor. We drove by that building literally three times (I felt like I was with Belana when we did our fun little pranks on Ezra and Noah Anderson hahaha). We finally decided to park the car and try to find her. We were going to knock on every door in that building if we had to! We were going to find Donna!! hahah. We walked up to the second floor, and I was so nervous! I had no idea what we were going to do or say... I kinda felt like Nephi when he went back for the brass plates for the third time and he had no idea beforehand what he was going to do... so I decided to be like Nephi and just trust the Lord. We picked a door and knocked on it. And DONNA ANSWERED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The VERY first door that we knock. Go figure. I'm sure God has fun watching my reactions to his master plans. Since I didn't want Donna to know that we had pretty much followed and creeped on her, I just kinda smiled at first. I opened my mouth to speak and the first thing that came out was, "Donna?!?!?!"

 

THE LOOK ON HER FACE WAS PRICELESS. I wish I had taken a picture it was so great. She was stunned. A man from inside called out, "Donna who is it?" And she motioned for us to come inside and she replied, "It's my sisters from the Mormon temple!" haha. We introduced ourselves and met the man, who's name is Chris.

 

So backstory. Donnas' neighbor, Kami, is in her 20's and has a 5 year old son named Oliver. Kami is pretty irresponsible and doesn't take care of her kid, so Donna does. Donna isn't related at all. Anyway. So Donna drops Oliver off at his Grandpa Chris's house for the weekends. She's told us about Olley's grandpa before, but she didn't tell us where he lived. Which she never had any reason to before. haha

 

Well, Donna was visiting Chris (I think they might be dating or something) and Oliver was there. Chris's 14 year old daughter, Kendall was there too. Chris and Kendall were literally talking about Mormons not even two days before. We talked with them and answered their crazy Mormon questions and taught the restoration. They said that we were welcome to come back at any time! Such a crazy miracle. At the end Kendall was really interested and asking a ton of questions about prophets and how everything works. She said she wanted to come to church with us after eater was over. And then Donna was like, "Kendall, I'll take you! That way you won't be alone!" All I could do was smile! We had been trying to get Donna to come to church with us for MONTHS. And she always had some excuse! But now she has someone to go with!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh it was the best thing in the world.

 

Man. Miracle after miracle this week. I'm just amazed. This is already a really long email, so just know that I have really great stories to share when I get home from my mission. And don't worry- I've written all of them down in my journal so I will NEVER forget! :)

 

I love you all! I hope you had a great easter and that you felt the love of our savior.

 

Have a great week!
Love

Sister Anderson

April 28, 2014

This week was good but it went by way too fast. This is the last week of the transfer. I can't believe it. I would be the one to be transferred, but I really hope I stay. If I get switched out, I will be heart broken. This area has come so far since I've been here and I love it so much! So I've been having mini anxiety attacks just thinking about transfer calls. We'll be getting them tonight ugh.

 

I'm glad you liked the picture sent from our members! We had family home evening with them on Monday night. They have a son serving in Arizona right now and they always LOVE it when members send them pictures of him- I guess they just wanted to pay it forward. :) They're so sweet. They're some of my favorite people here!

 

I had a trial of faith this week. We met with Mercedes again. She's the lady who was baptized 20 years ago and went inactive as soon as she joined the church. She's very strong in her church that she goes to now, but she lets us come over every week and study with her. This week she asked about the differences between her belief in the trinity and our belief in the godhead. Okay, so I KNOW with all my heart that God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are three separate distinct beings. But man! The way that she was explaining the trinity fit really well with the Bible. She has scriptures to back it up and everything. Both Sister Udall and I just sat there and listen to her arguments that the trinity is the way it is...and when we didn't respond right away she commented with a huge smile on her face, "You can just join MY church!!!!" My heart just sank. There was NO way that I was going to Bible bash her. I didn't want to argue. But I felt like I had to at least defend the true nature of the godhead. Mercedes is a lot like me- stubborn. :) We always talk about how we have a lot in common. And we're good friends because of it!! Anyway. We wound up sharing Joseph Smith's first vision experience with her. Right when we started talking about it, her non member husband, Mike, walked in the door early from work. So he listened in too! I don't know what he was thinking, but I know he's not a fan of us coming over and trying to bring Mercedes back to our church. Oh well. Haha! My mind was just troubled all week over the fact that so many people don't even know the true nature of God. We know about the godhead because of modern revelation, but without it, it's no wonder people believe so strongly in the trinity.

 

We've been trading off with the Elders every week in teaching a Book of Mormon study class. Our ward missionary, Brother Mercer, has started it up again and it's great. We taught this last week and the spirit was so strong. I actually like teaching in a class setting like that! We used the seminary manual :) Brother Mercer is such a funny old man!!!!!! He just says things as they are and sometimes he's really sarcastic.

 

Haha- one time we were having a missionary correlation meeting with the ward missionaries. Our ward mission leader, Brother Stark, saw a chipmunk outside on his back porch and said, "Oh look! A chipmunk!" hahahahaha. Everyone turned to look except for Brother Mercer who said, "Oh really? I've never seen a chipmunk before." I tried really hard to hold back my laughter but then Brother Stark innocently replied, "Really? Well there's one right outside, if you just turned around you could see it!" And Brother Mercer goes, "It was a JOKE!" It was so hilarious! Brother Stark and Brother Mercer are just two really funny old men who always go back and forth. I told Sister Udall yesterday that if their friendship was recorded in a movie, it would be one of my favorites. They're just too funny. I wish you could all know them.

 

We had another lesson with Donna!! We went by the apartment to teach her with Chris and Kendall, but Chris was at the hospital because he has a blood clot in his leg and Kendall was out with her sister getting a tan. Haha. So we just taught Donna by herself! We taught her the plan of salvation and she totally soaked it right up! We made it halfway through the lesson up to the part where we talk about our life on earth and the atonement and she said, "Keep going! I'm totally engrossed in this!" It made me smile. This was the very first time I'd taught the plan of salvation to an investigator before, so I was a teeeeny bit nervous about teaching the part about the kingdoms of glory. I think i was just afraid that she wouldn't believe it and that she would make fun of it. But at the end of the lesson Heavenly Father taught me that I needed to have more faith in Him! Because at the end, Sister Udall asked Donna if she believed this was true, and Donna said a firm, "Oh YES! God definitely has a plan for each of us!" She has a lot of faith. She just takes things as we say them. Which is great, but we want her to know everything for herself. We almost put her on date for baptism, but we decided she wasn't there quite yet. We asked her if she had prayed about everything that we've taught her up to this point and she said she hadn't. We invited her to take it to the source of all truth, aka God, and ask to know for herself if it really is true!

 

We got to help out the youth this week!!!!! It was SO MUCH FUN! They did a bit young men and young women activity about missionary work! The leaders invited us to come and to be "investigators" while the youth paired up and were the missionaries. We went into a classroom and they knocked on the door, trying to teach us about the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel. They did so well!!! Holy cow the youth in this ward are going to be great missionaries! It was so much fun. I LOVE being around the youth.

 

Right after that we got a text from a VERY pregnant lady in the ward who couldn't even bring in her own groceries. She is going through a divorce and has two little girls who do not help her at all and she's due on Memorial Day. Her situation breaks my heart!! I wish there was more we could do for her! We brought in her groceries and said a prayer with them and had to leave so we could be home by 9pm. Poor lady. We're going to go over and clean her car and her kitchen for her this week.

 

Ah!! AND we got to do another service project!!!!!!!! We are allowed up to 4 hours of service every week, and we have been doing 0. Laaaaaaaaame!! The members have it in their minds that since we're sisters, we're weak or afraid to get dirty or something. They just never invite us to help people move or to do any hard work. But this time, we pretty much invited ourselves. It was Sister Udall and I and the entire high priests group working together to clean up a less active lady's back yard! It was the best thing ever. This lady had a HUGE pile of old rotten lumber, old tangled wire fences everywhere, old swing sets... everything. But we loaded up trucks and took it all to the dump. After a couple of hours, her yard was perfect! I got so muddy and a little sunburnt (oops) but I loved it. I made sure I worked harder than the elders did. Brother Hilton came up to Sister Udall and I at the end and called us his heroes. hahahaha!! And then in the third hour of ward conference yesterday, Brother Stark made an announcement to the ward that the ward needs to use us more for service. :)

 

AHHH THIS JUST IN FROM MY MISSION PRESIDENT

From 2:00 - 4:00 pm on May 17, we will have the opportunity to have a 3-mission conference where we will be taught by Elder M. Russell Ballard (Quorum of Twelve Apostles), Elder Whitney Clayton (Presidency of the Seventy), and Elder Wong (recently called to the First Quorum of the Seventy). The meeting will be held at the stake center next to the temple.

Okay. How cool is that?!

 

Oh I almost forgot my favorite miracle of the week!! Sister Udall had served in the Great Falls ward when she was a new missionary. One of the members in that ward that had just returned home from his mission sent her the name and phone number of one of his good friends who just moved into the Centreville area and who just got married!! His name is John Kim! And he is so great! He took us to a little bakery and bought us goodies to much on while we taught him. He had so many great questions about missionaries and Mormons and what makes us different. At first it was all small talk, but then the spirit put an inspired question into my mind and I asked, "What do you expect from meeting with us?" And he then went into how he was not satisfied with his church and he wanted to find the source of all truth. He loves Mormons and he thinks our church meetings are run the right way. (He went to church once before with his friend in Great Falls). Holy cow! This was such a great member referral miracle!!! John Kim is so prepared! We gave him a copy of the book of Mormon in Korean- he was born and raised in Korea. He was so excited at the end of our lesson!!!

 

So I think that's all for this week folks! :) Have a great week!

 

Do you study Preach My Gospel as a family? I bet you totally are, but if not, I invite you to do so for Family Home Evening!! Chapter 3 has all the missionary lessons, and Chapter 5 is all about the Book of Mormon and it's importance in our lives. I'd start with those chapters first. As you study together, the Lord WILL give you even more great opportunities to share the gospel with everyone around you! He puts prepared people in the paths of his prepared servants- I've experienced it for myself and I KNOW that's true!

 

Love you all!!!
Love,
Sister Anderson


 



Sister Udall's family sent Julie and egg for Easter!  SWEET!  Thank you!

Julie and the goats

This is part of the sister's service.