September 26, 2013 - Sister Anderson's First Email

Hey everyone!
 

Sorry I haven't been able to email you sooner. I didn't have Pday before today. Just a few things to tell you about that you should know. :) I leave the MTC Oct 2nd at 2am. I am going to DIE. haha. But I can do hard things! :) Also, the sister missionary MTC choir is singing at the General Relief Society meeting this Saturday. AND I"M IN THE CHOIR. Look for me, I'll be wearing a brown shirt!
 

Thanks for all your letters. They make me feel really good. I miss you guys a lot. But don't worry, not too much. In D&C 100:1, the Lord says that my family's in His hands. So you are being taken care of. And that gives me a lot of comfort! Brendan, I'm so proud of you!!! Way to trample that kid! Did you make him cry?! Also, there are no guys as sexy as Dayle and Tyler's still the cutest. My companion is awesome! I love being a missionmormonary!!!!!! Dayle, I know SO MANY PEOPLE here at the MTC! There are so many missionaries here from Olympia and Lacey area, but there are also a lot of people here that I know from BYU. Pretty cool. I get excited every time I see someone. Last night, Tanner got here. I walked by him and he yelled out my name and  grabbed my arms and almost gave me a hug! HAHAHA he gets so excited! But I was like "I can't hug you ahhhh!" hahahaha. It was hilarious! But we were able to shake hands like crazy people! Dayle, I hope you know that I can't wait for you to be a missionary. There are times I'll be walking around and I think I see you. You have a few years to go, but I know that you are going to bless so many lives. I just know it. In my mind it's totally easy to picture you in a suit with a name tag on your chest. Belana, you have a hand written letter...;) But only because I had extra time to write you! haha. Mom, I got all your letters! I hope to answer all your questions... :)

I bet Mike and Katie have already told you this story, but I got lost when I got off the plane! I was all by myself for an HOUR until I felt the prompting to pray. As soon as I said amen, I heard my name. I turned around to see Grandpa K. It was the greatest sight in my LIFE! I was overcome with so much love and emotion. I didn't think I'd get to see him for 18 months! The Lord really does care about me. Prayer works. He hears prayers and answers them.

I love. LOVE the MTC. From the very moment that I got here, I couldn't stop smiling!!! I've never felt so good about anything in my life. I was always meant to be a missionary for the Lord! We were herded into a big room where we had new missionary orientation. We sang two opening songs. Called to Serve and Army of Helaman. I couldn't even sing, I was so overcome with the spirit. In the Army of Helaman, they changed the line that says, "we are as the Lord's missionaries" to "we are NOW the Lord's missionaries". The importance of my calling just hit me! And I love it! In D&C 31:3 it says to lift up your heart and rejoice! the hour of your mission has come!!!! I am so grateful that the Lord has called me to help Him in His work! His love for His children is SO great. After the first day, I really felt the weight of the importance of this work. From day one, I made a promise to myself and the Lord to obey with exactness because I want to show Him that I am serious about being His servant. I am a representative of Jesus Christ in everything that I do and say. Remembering all these rules and striving to be obedient is so hard sometimes, but it's possible and worth it.

My companion's name is Sister Gordon. She is literally everything that I'm not, but we complete each other. She's a bit quiet and keeps to herself, but she really helps me. I learn so much from her. She helps me make it to meetings on time and to not get lost! haha! And we decided that I cry enough for the both of us. I'm just really open with my emotions. Soon after we first met she told me, "It's like I'm a vulcan. And you're my James Kirk." Yep! She's a trekkie! :) Jacob Klumker gave me the best advice when he said to love my companion no matter what. It's so true! There are times when my patience is tested, just because we both have different ideas on how to approach lessons. But I work so hard to love her and make her feel appreciated. :) She's amazing!

Every day my faith is tested, and it's growing. Every time I pray or focus really hard to spend all my time doing things that the Lord wants me to do, I am blessed. It's hard to stay focused though. A missionary's day is 16 hours long.  I really have to completely rely on the Lord. I saw Brother Jackson! He was my mission prep teacher from BYU! Talk about tender mercies of the Lord. Honestly though, I really shouldn't have been so surprised to see him. I mean, people at BYU usually help out or work at the MTC.... But every time I see someone I know, it's a blessing and lifts my spirits so much! I've seen Sister Tilleman, Elder Clark, Elder Oaks, Elder Farrer, Elder Risk, and a WHOLE bunch of people from BYU! I've been trying to take lots of pictures :)

My branch president's name is President Wenn. He is LITERALLY half my size. TINY. But his spirit is so tall! We met him on my second day here. He called me to be the Sister Training Leader. Which is the equivalent of a zone leader, but for sisters. They added the calling when the age change happened because there are so many more sisters to take care of. President told me that he believes that I volunteered for this calling in the pre-mortal existence. Honestly, it would have been super easy to be stressed about this calling, but when he said that, it felt so right. I know what he said was true. I was always meant to be here at this time :) It's a great calling!!!

There are angels here! Remember what Dad said about how angels surround the MTC? It's true! I haven't seen them, but I don't have to. :) Also! In one of our meetings we were taught that since we were called to be missionaries, we were assigned an angel to be with us and to protect us. :) I can't wait to thank my angel someday and give them a big hug!! I feel so blessed.

Some days are harder than others. Missionary work isn't easy. I always knew it wouldn't be. But I rely completely on the Lord and he helps me to take each day as they come. It gets harder and harder to wake up right when that annoying alarm clock blares in the morning. There are times when I start thinking about my task at hand and how I have 18 months left. Sometimes I think, "what did I get myself into?!?!!" Those are the times when I have to pray. I set a goal to focus on the NOW. I am going to enjoy every moment of my mission and  make the most of it. When I am focused on the work and my studies, I don't think those negative thoughts. I work so hard to smile every day to lift the spirits of others.

Fun fact. Sept 21 was the 190th anniversary of when Angel Moroni came to Joseph Smith and told him where to find the plates! SO COOL! Elder Mathews from my district was reading Joseph Smith History and showed that to us!

I love my district. We are so close! There are five sisters and four elders. We outnumber them! It's amazing how many sisters are here. I learn so much from my sisters and elders. We were all meant to be together for a reason. We all like each other a little too much, so yesterday I said that we had to set goals to stay focused during study times. And since then, we've done really well in working hard. Haha! Oh my. A few days ago I woke up with a HUGE zit on my head. Sister McBride(one of the sisters) asked, "Sister Anderson, is that a bug bite?" I was like, "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...." it was SO awkward! And then somehow it came up during one of our study times... it took us a while to stop laughing. And now every time we pass the elders in the walk ways, they ask me how my bug bite is doing. Sounds like something Dayle would say.

The days went by REALLY slow until Sunday came. Sunday was so relaxing!!! I still felt the spirit, but I didn't have to sit through a million intense classes. It was nice. 

To help us prepare for teaching actual investigators, we are given practice investigators. The MTC hires people to act the part of an investigator, but to make it as real as possible. There is this program called TRC. I'm not really sure what it stands for, but we are assigned a "progressing investigator" who we have to teach. We are only given a short bio about them and we are to prepare a lesson and treat it like it's real. Our investigator's name is Belinda. She lives in Singapore and works with a less active member friend who mentioned the church to her. Belinda went to church one Sunday and the Branch President gave the missionaries her address. So Sister Gordon and I prayed about it, and we decided to plan a lesson on teaching her about how God is literally our Father in Heaven and he loves his children. We knocked on her door, and immediately the spirit was just gone. She looked really angry and defensive, but for some reason let us in. We told her we had a message for her and that we were representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. We asked a few questions to get to know her and her background with church in general, and she has none. She doesn't know who God is, and has never gone to church. We were so confused! We didn't know where to go! In our classes, we mostly talk about how to teach people who have backgrounds of other faiths! So we didn't know what to do. After a bit of awkward silence, she asked us why we were there the first place and what our message was. Since she hadn't even heard of God before, we couldn't exactly teach her that God loves her......so we tried explaining who God is. It was terrible. She started yelling at us about monsters and ghosts and how we were busy bodies who should mind our own business. So I thanked her for her time, and we left. I felt so bad. Immediately after she closed the door behind our backs, the spirit came over me in a wave of emotion. I had no idea what to do other than pray. I prayed to know what we could have done differently. I prayed to know why the spirit wasn't in Belinda's house...I had been doing everything that I could to be obedient so that I COULD have the spirit to teach with me. That whole experience HURT. I wanted so bad to show Belinda that she's loved. Belinda was supposed to be our "progressing investigator" but we didn't even make a return appointment with her! Sister Gordon and I were worried. So the next day that we were scheduled for TRC practice, we planned on just sitting in our classroom to study more for other investigators. But the guy who's in charge of TRC came to us and told us that Belinda was there and that we should go teach her again. It was the scariest moment of my LIFE. I was terrified! I didn't want to get yelled at again for trying to help her come unto Christ!!!! But Sister Gordon and I said a prayer, and went forward in faith. It took a lot of faith on my part. But I'm glad we did it. The second time meeting with Belinda was sooo much better! We knocked on her door and told her that we were just in the neighborhood and wanted to check in on her to see how she was doing. She said she was fine and mentioned that we had a lot of free time on our hands. I said that we had been busy and had a break in our schedule. She said that she wasn't too busy at the moment either so I quickly asked, "can we come in?!?" She ACTUALLY let us in!!!!!! As I was going to sit down in my chair, I noticed that she had knitting supplies on her chair and that she wa sin the middle of making a scarf or something. I felt like I needed to ask her about it, and I so I did. Right away, she opened up about how she had been knitting for about a week because her doctor told her it would help with her physical therapy or something. Then she talked about her job, her father, her hobbies. She totally opened up with us! I know that it was the spirit that guided me to ask about her knitting. I would not have thought of that on my own. But we learned a lot about who she is and what her needs are. I learned in one of my classes that if you really listen to your investigators, they will tell you what they need to come unto Christ. I can testify that that's true. We learned that she's traveled the world and loves to learn about different cultures. So the next time we met with her we brought her a Book of Mormon and told her that it contains the culture of the church that we represent. We told her that it teaches about Jesus Christ and how to be like him. We invited her to read it, and she said she would! :) It's just a start, but I now know of the importance of really getting to know your investigators and to love them. I love Belinda so much! I know all of this was just practice, but it felt so real! I really hope I have another opportunity to teach her again. 

All the new missionaries came in the other day! They look the same way that I felt when I first got here. Haha. I'm glad I've been here a week and have been able to adjust to things. But since I'm the Sister Training Leader, I got to spend some time with the new sisters and help them move into their rooms. I love being a leader. It reminds me of when I was the Laurel President. I love helping the sisters and praying for them and loving them. :) 

Okay. Since missionary work is all about commitments, and inviting people to act upon their faith,  I have a few commitments for all of you. I decided that I'm going to read the entire Book of Mormon again before my birthday on Dec 7th. And even though we're going to be on separate sides of the country, we can read it together. I'm inviting you to read it with me! I know that as we read together, we will come closer to Christ. I want to hear about your experience reading too! Yesterday I read 1 Ne chapters 1-3. I learned that obedience really is important. The Lord gave commandments to Lehi and his family, and told them that as they were obedient, they would be blessed and would be delivered into the land of promise. Obedience is vital is every aspect of life. It's not just for missionaries. I wish I'd taken that more literally before I was a missionary. I could have had so many more blessings! The Lord wants to bless us :) I also learned of the importance of the influence that siblings have on each other. Nephi prayed to God to know of the truth of his father's words, and then went to share his experience with his brothers. Sam believed him! Laman on the other hand, didn't. Lemuel decided to follow the example of Laman. Siblings really do have the power to lift each other up or to tear them down. I hope and pray that the things that I've done lifts up my siblings. Belana, Dayle and Brendan, I love you so much. I know that as we follow Him, He will bless us. As a missionary, I really feel the love that Heavenly Father has for all of us as his children. Pray to be able to know with all your heart that this church is true. Read the Book of Mormon with me. :) It doesn't matter if you read it as a family or not, but I want to be able to learn from your own personal experiences as you read. The Book of Mormon has teachings that apply to everyone individually! 

 

One more thing. Please pray for me to understand the doctrines and the lessons. I'm struggling with connecting the dots and putting everything together and then simplifying it enough to help investigators to understand. Please pray to help me understand so I can better serve God and His children. Please pray for the people in my mission.

I love all of you so much. You are in my prayers every single day. The Lord really does know us all personally and will take care of us. This is a gospel of love. I'm so grateful to our God that He loves us. I would be nothing without Him. He makes up for my weaknesses and makes me strong like in Ether 12:27. Honestly, I'm grateful for my weaknesses. Without them, I wouldn't have ever had to rely on Him as much as I have. I know if I do my best, Heavenly Father will take care of the rest. I love you. And I hope you have a great week!

With all my love,

Sister Anderson