December 29, 2014

Hello there!

Since mom asked for a letter this week, I guess I'll write one. ;) I don't really have much to say, so I'm sorry about that.

It was fun to skype you all on Thursday!!!!! I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone. The holidays are always tough as a missionary, so I'm grateful they flew by! It's just hard because no one wants to schedule time for us to come over, which is slightly depressing.

Like I told you in person, we cleaned out our teaching pool. It's kinda cool to be starting from scratch just in time for the New Year though! We've been finding and are going to be finding like crazy in the next upcoming week to find people to teach. Having no one to teach is a little disheartening and I can't WAIT to find em!

Sister Christensen goes home on January 8th. She's such a trunky mess. ;) hahaha just kidding. We actually set really high goals this week and are going to work harder than we have all transfer! She's an awesome missionary because she has so much love, loves to work but is so chill at the same time. We always have fun together!

Last night we had a few door slams. They were my first since coming to Ashburn, so I guess I can't complain. One of them was a less active lady. She opened the door with a big smile, looked down at my name tag and before I could even say hello she said, "Don't ever come back here again!" and closed the door. It was so sudden and caught me off guard that I couldn't help but laugh a little. It was harder for Sister Christensen though. Also, our number one potential investigator that we had really high hopes for was really passive aggressive about setting a return appointment with us. We knocked on her door and she had her mom answer for her so she wouldn't have to talk to us. From the doorway I could see her standing in the kitchen, so I said hello, but she just half smiled back and walked away.

Our faith is just being tested right now.

Later we called our ward mission leader to give him an update about our day and I told him, "Hey, we've had so much rejection that it's our turn to have a super cool miracle happen!" It just feels a lot better to be optimistic. 

OH hey! I love being a sister training leader! This morning, a set of sisters came to our apartment for studies. During companionship study after we were done practice teaching, one of them asked, "I know this is a little off topic, but I have a few questions for you." She then went on to ask about some of the rules she was unsure about before she asked what she could do to feel like she is giving her ALL. So I was able to help her redefine her definition of success! I'm glad I was able to help her :)

Anyways. That's all for this week folks!

Keep reading the Book of Mormon!! ;) love you all!
Love,
Sister Anderson

December 18, 2014

Hey!

This week FLEW by. 

 

Monday we went to DC and took a tour of the capital. 

Tuesday was Zone Training, so Sister Christensen and I had to teach our zone for a part of the time because we are Sister Training Leaders. It was a little awkward, but I just asked tons of questions and made the missionaries talk so I didn't have to. haha! It went pretty well.

Wednesday we taught at Zone Training again for the Leesburg Zone. We're in charge of two zones... that was a lot more fun. I think the group of people in the Leesburg zone are a lot easier to get along with. 

 

Thursday we..... uhhh. Oh yeah! Everyone cancelled on us. So the only thing I can remember is knocking doors and driving around wondering if people would let us in.

 

Friday we had our Mission Christmas Conference. There was a variety show. A lot of missionaries sang Christmas songs and what not...and Sister Gray and I rapped together. IT WAS AWESOME. We got up and hummed a starting pitch to make it look like we were going to sing...and then I started beat boxing. It was awesome. We got a standing ovation at the end!!! hahahahhahahahahahaha. I still can't believe that I RAPPED in front of my entire mission! But at the same time, I feel prettyyyyy dang cool. I forgot to have someone record it for me, but I'll get a copy of it from someone who did record it so I can send it to you. 

Saturday we went all the way to Warrenton so we could go to the baptism of a girl that Sis C taught at the very beginning of her mission. It was pretty cool. 

Sunday we stopped by a few part member families. Lately I have been feeling SO strongly that we need to be in their homes on a regular basis! We stopped by one family and a lady a few years older than me answered. Her name is Cassie! She said that her family stopped going to church when she was 7. I asked if we could come back and teach her our missionary lessons, and she said we could come back next Saturday!!! :D WOOHOOO! 

So that's my week in a nutshell. Pretty great.

My companion and I get along so well. It's a miracle. I told her that before we became companions, I prayed for someone who has a lot of patience, and she told me that she prayed for someone that she could just have fun with! Both of our prayers were answered!!! It's a party. 

I'm sorry I'm lame and can't think of anything else to talk about in this email. We pretty much cleaned out our teaching pool and it's been tough but yesterday I fasted that God would help us find SOLID investigators that would keep commitments, so I'm sure we'll find lots of great people this week! 

GOOD JOB with reading the Book of Mormon!!!! Keep going! I've started a cool highlighting system these days! I highlight every time time it says the word 'faith' with blue, 'repentance' with red, 'baptism' with green and 'spirit' with yellow! :) It's helped me pay more attention to what I'm reading!

I love you all so much! Have a great week!
Love,

Sister Anderson

December 8, 2014 - Visit to DC

Sorry I'm emailing later than usual this week! Today we went into DC and took a tour of the Captial and went to the Library of Congress. It was super cool! I'm so grateful to serve in our Nation's Capital! 

 

This week went by quick! Thanks for all the birthday wishes! It was a great day :)

Tuesday we had a lesson with a Muslim lady we met. She invited two of her friends to come along. It was more of a debate... It wasn't heated or anything, but those women had no intent to really take to heart what we had to say. But it was really interesting to learn about whawt Muslim's believe. Oh and they invited US to read the Quran... It was really kind of them. Maybe when I get home I'll look more into it to learn more. I think religions are really interesting. If anything else, they help me to realize that I have been so incredibly blessed to be a part of the fulness of Christ's church!

Thursday we went to Centreville for a Dr appointment. They told me I have lost 14 pounds since I've started going to that Drs office in April! Woo! I still have a long way to go...But running at least a mile every day has worked wonders! That night we went to a lesson with a Hispanic lady named Angelik that we met last week. Everyone has been so incredibly flaky lately and all of our return appointments have fallen through, so I didn't have high hopes for Angelik. I didn't even want to go. But we went anyway of course. I was so glad we did! We knocked on the door and this guy answers. He was super sarcastic with us and didn't make eye contact, so when he told us the story about how Angelik had just called him and asked that he let us know that she was out with friends, I didn't believe him at all. We were about to leave when he stopped us and said, "well hey, since I've got your attention, I have a few questions for you." I got really nervous as he brought up a ton of anti material and asked if we wore that "cool underwear" and talked about how he fully supported polygamy. Honestly, anti just drives me nuts. Plus, I couldn't handle his sarcastic attitude like he was pulling a huge joke on us. So before he could go on I stopped him and said something like, "wait. Are you being for real? Because Yes I am a Mormon, but that doesn't mean I'm not a normal person who can see right through all of this!" He just looked at me and said, "no I'm totally serious!" After that, the conversation went up hill. Thank goodness! Hahaha. I told him that yes, I wear the cool underwear and I love it! we made sure the whole polygamy situation was cleared up too...We started asking him what his religious background was and who God is to him. He said he's pretty much a Buddhist because he just believes in good energy or something. Our conversation with him turned out to be a lot of fun! Eventually we were all laughing together out on his doorstep. After about 20 minutes, the door right across from him in the apartment building FLEW open and we all stopped laughing and turned to see a tiny old lady standing in the doorway with a crazy look in her eyes. I think my heart might've stopped in that moment. She said, "Tom! How dare you have a party...without inviting ME!" She then saw our name tags and said, "oh, it's just the missionaries. Okay." It was hilarious!! Turns out, the Sisters before me had knocked that building and met her. Her name is Debb and she's a Born Again Christian. Actually, she is the first Born Again Christian that was kind to me. I'm used to Born Again Christians being all sweet at first but then turning out to be not very kind because they're just trying to prove me wrong. Debb didn't do that. She asked if we could pray together and invited us and Tom over! After another 20 minutes, Angelik came over and sincerely apologized to us. Turns out she actually did call Tom and asked him to tell us that she wasn't home. Hm. It helped restore my faith in humanity! I love honest people!

 

Friday we went to Mission Leadership Council! That's where all the leadership of the mission gets together. We sat in a HUGE circle and counselled on what will help our mission progress. It was really interesting. It was from 8am-4pm.... Sooo long. After they fed us lunch, a tradition that President Riggs does with all the missionaries is to play a game of BUMP! It was so much fun! If that's what he does at every MLC, I don't mind having to go once a month! 

Missionary Leadership Council

 

 

Saturday we stopped by Warrens and he didn't answer. His roommate named Guy came home when we were about to leave and he opened the door and made Warren come out to talk to us. I guess from where Warren was sitting in his house, he just couldn't hear us knocking. And he doesn't have a doorbell. Lame! haha. But as soon as he came to the door he said he would come to church in the morning! It was a miracle becasue we've been having a really hard time trying to get into contact with him this week! 

Sunday Warren didn't come to church and he missed our appointment. So we stopped by and started talking to his neighbors that lived across the street. He saw us and came out to talk. He had a family emergency and couldn't come to church. But he told us that he gave up tea and is working on giving up coffee. He is excited about being baptized on the 27th!!! There are just a few things we will have to go over with him, but his heart seems to be in the right place. Plus, he is reading out of the Book of Mormon, so that shows how serious he is. I love Warren!!! He is such a sweet old man! He has a lot going on in his life that always seems to explode whenever he says he will come to church or do anything that will help him progress. It would be great if you all would please pray for him!!!! He needs all the prayers he can get.

 

Love you all! Keep up the good work! Keep reading the Book of Mormon! Be sure to keep me updated on where you're at! :)

I can't wait to SEE YOUR FACES IN A FEW WEEKS AAAHHHH!!!!

 

Love you!

Sister Anderson

Sister And Brigham Young.  The Capital Building has one Statue of the
most influential person of each state. 

 

 

 

 

In front of the White House.

December 1, 2014 - First week in Ashburn, VA

Hey! Sorry my letter last week was a lame one...I was really bummed out that my computer wasn't working. :( 

So I have to tell you about my last experience in the Haymarket Ward the night before I left. So the Wednesday before transfers we took Ashleigh up to the temple visitor center for a lesson. We showed her the video called, God's plan, and everyone in the room was bawling expect for Ashleigh...it was really confusing. We did everything that we could to help her. We testified and promised her blessings and everything...we just couldn't get through to her! When we got back home, we talked to Ashleigh for a minute before we drove away and she told us that she was sorry that she wasn't responding very well.  We called a member who Ashleigh looks up to as a sort of father figure, and he gave her a priesthood blessing. I did not feel right about leaving Ashleigh by herself, but we couldn't be with her all night long. :( that night I prayed harder than I have for another person in my life!!

That was slightly stressful...and packing took forever (I really hate packing), but transfers happened...and I saw Dan Hernandez!!!!!!!! It is sooooooo awesome that someone from home is serving in my mission!!!!! I was sitting in the back of the chapel where all the new missionaries walked in at the beginning of the meeting...and I totally freaked out! I was really excited to see him! I wasn't sure when I'd see him, and I kinda forgot he was coming so it was a small surprise when he walked in! 

Hey LOOK, It's Elder Hernandez!!!  Julie was SO excited to see someone from home!

 

OH MY GOSH. So. When Sister Lamborn and I were companions, she got a video recording of me laughing in my sleep! And she gave it to President Riggs!!! How embarrassing right??? Well. To start off the transfer meeting, President Riggs played it over the PULPIT!!!!! I COULDNT BELIEVE IT!!!!!!! Everyone was laughing! When I got my new companion, literally everyone came up to her and told her to keep her camera on hand whenever I was sleeping! Oh man... so now pretty much everyone in the mission knows me for my crazy giggle. Sooo. yeah. I don't know what else to say about it. haha. 

 

 





Sister Lamborn going home.



 







Sister Udall going home.

 



 

Another cute sister going home.

So I am now serving in the Ashburn Ward with Sister Jillynn Christensen. This is her very last transfer and then she goes home!!! She has a really good attitude about going home which is awesome. There are lots of Sister missionaries who are always complaining about how they never want to go home because they love their missions so much, but she always says, "I don't wanna serve a day less or a day more! 18 months is perfect for me!" She super awesome and chill. She is from Provo, Utah and is number six of eight kids. She is one inch taller than me!!! Wooo I have a companion who is taller than meeee!!! But I wear size 11 on shoes and she wears a size 10. How does that work out?! Haha. The apartment that we live in is SWANKY. It's the nicest apartment I've lived in on my mission...and probably my entire life. It's brand new. I'll have to take pics to send to you next week. I hope I remember! Haha. But there's a super nice theater room, gym, game room, pool (that we will never use because we are obedient haha). It's super nice. I feel spoiled! And we're driving a new chevy cruze. I think it's either a 2013 or 2014. 

 

This Ward is totally awesome. They just barely called a new Ward mission leader right before transfers and he is young and excited about the work. It's really nice to have a Ward mission leader who actually cares about the work we are doing. It is way awesome! He goes out and meets our investigators when he feels like it. And yesterday at church he gave the best talk about how doing missionary work is how we show our gratitude for the savior and the atonement! The work is going to hasten in the Ward, I just know it! 

 

Thanksgiving was really good! We went to the Dallin's for the big Thanksgiving feast. They invited another family from the Ward names the Angels. It was so fun. I wrote out the text on Sister Dallin's phone about how she is so cute and awesome...she wanted me to make sure to clarify that so that she wouldn't sound conceited..hahahahaha! Then we went to the Willis's house and we played games to let our tummies settle before eating again. We played Telestrations, which is the funniest game and I love it, and a card game. I think it's called the Great down moody or something like that. I don't know...but it was pretty fun. I just found out that the Willis's have a daughter who's birthday is the same day is mine and they totally invited me over to dinner next Sunday to celebrate together! I'm so excited!!!!! :) the Willis's then made us grilled cheese sandwiches because they wanted to eat something light and easy other than turkey. It's one of their family traditions.

I feel like with every new place I get transferred to, I feel a greater urgency to work harder and harder. This past week, we started off with no one one date and only a few new investigators. But since Sister Christensen and I have been put together, we've hit the ground running. We now have two people on date for baptism and found four new investigators on Friday and Saturday. I totally stressed myself out on Sunday when no one showed up for church... man I am constantly reminding myself that agency is actually a blessing from God..hahaha! It just kills me that we work so hard during the week, and no one shows up. I also have to remind myself that I can be happy knowing that I did everything that I could. I know that if I keep working hard, God will bless us with investigators who will have real intent enough to come to church!!! I am just way excited for God to lead us to those investigators!!

 

So about my Sister Training Leader responsibilities... I'm still trying ot figure out what they all are. It's a newer leadership position for Sister missionaries that the church made when the age changed and a TON of sisters were coming out. Being a sister training leader is about the same as being a Zone Leader for Elders. We go to a special meeting about once a month called the Mission Leadership Council that councils together with President Riggs about certain issues and concerns that we see amongst missionaries in the mission and we come up with the solution together. Then we take it back to the sisters. Sister Christensen and I are assigned five sets of sisters to be in our stewardship and we are to go on an "exchange" with them once every six weeks. We just trade companions for 24 hours. During the exchange, we take time to train the sisters on what President wants us to train them on and we practice teaching with them. Then we go out and work like it's a normal day. We go to lessons, we go finding people to teach, and we plan together for the next day. Around lunch time we switch back and the exchange is over. Exchanges are a good time to find out how the sisters are doing emotionally, so President Riggs wants us to have "pillow talk" with them late into the night to figure out if they are struggling with anything from back home, how their companionship is doing, how they are handling stress, those kind of things. (So pretty much, we don't get much sleep! YIKES). I'm pretty much President Riggs' eyes and ears for the Sisters that I am in charge of. There are a few times for zone conferences or Zone Training Meetings that we have to get up in front of the Zone and teach the whole group of missionaries, but that doesn't happen all too often. I have to do all of this on top of my normal missionaries duties! It's kind of stressful when I think about it, so I just try to go with the flow and have fun!! haha. So far, it's gone pretty well. I've only gone on exchanges once in the two weeks that I've been here and I went to Catoctin with Sister Gray!!! Cray cray Sister Gray! She was my roommate in my first area, so it was a BLAST to be companions with her for 24 hours!!!! We just laughed the entire time! I love laughing. I figure that laughter is the best medicine....and I guess I jsut need a little more medicine than normal people do ;) The exchange was a little awkward during the training part because I didn't really know what I was doing, but I was so grateful that my very first exchange was with Sister Gray because she is one of my really good friends and was really supportive of me being her brand new sister training leader.

 

I hope you have a better understanding of what I'm doing as a sister training leader!

 

I hope you all have a great week! Know that I am doing well! I am completely in love with this work. I love every bit of it! Especially the hard parts because they help me to more fully rely on God. 

Oh hey- you didn't give me a report on your Book of Mormon reading this last week! How's it coming? I challenge you to finish it before I get home in April! :) I'll try to read it again before then too! 

Love you so much!

Sister Anderson

November 24, 2014 New Companion - Sister Christensen

Hello family! This week I am having a hard time using the computers and my iPad is really slow in sending emails. So I apologize for the lack of an update on my life. I will write more next week I promise! Just know that I am doing well and loving my new Ward. I also love my new companion, sister Christensen! We laugh together all the time! It is so refreshing and nice to be around her. We are going to have a grsat transfer. Oh this is her very last transfer by he way! She is from Provo utah! Haha. She is awesome. I love you all so. Uch! Love, Sister Anderson

Sister Anderson and new Companion Sister Christensen

OK - so Julie has a new Comp and was Moved to a new area. Her Companion is just as tall as Julie or a little taller so that is AWESOME!!!!! After all, TALL IS BEAUTIFUL!!! IT's fun to see pictures of them standing together and see that Julie isn't towering over her comp. They would be a force to reckoned with!!!! Enjoy the pics and I will post more letters and pics.



Oh hey! I am no longer a picky eater. Tell it to the world because I can now eat just about anything. Within reason. Sort of. Okay, well I ate bilute. Have you ever heard of that before? Well I guess it's an Asian delicacy or something. We work with three Asian families in this area, so I've had it twice now. It's a partially developed chicken embryo that you boil. And I ate it right out of the egg!!! :O It actually doesn't taste that bad. You just can't look at it for too long before you eat it. I made sure to take lots of pictures for proof.

Sister Anderson, Ashleigh, and Sister Williams visiting the
Washington DC Temple Visitor's Center.

Sister Missionaries

Brinlee and Sister Anderson

We did lots of fun things this week! We painted for one of my favorite member families, the Grimes! They are just the sweetest people and they have the cutest girls. They're definitely people I will come back to visit after my mission. We had a game night with Ashleigh and a family in the ward that has four girls ages 5-14. We played Taboo! It was so fun! The dad of the family was actually Ashleigh's principle at Bull Run High School... so I didn't think through how awkward it could have been! But it turned out really well! :) There's another member, Sister Humphreys, who knew I'd be leaving soon so she knitted me a scarf as an early Christmas present! How sweet is that?!

Update - Julie was transferred!! New Address!

Hey!

I was transferred to the Ashburn ward on Thursday! President Riggs asked that I email you my new address. It's 43804 Central Station Dr Apt. 314 Ashburn, VA 20147

I am also a Sister Training Leader. That means that I get to take care of five companionships of sisters and go on exchanges with each of them on top of the normal work I have to do. I also have to go to extra meetings. Woo. Haha! 

I LOVE YOU! I'll send lots of pics on Monday.

Sister Anderson

November 3, 2014 - HOLA! (She got to see FROZEN)

I know, I am posting the DAY I received this!  Don't fall over or anything!  Might not happen for a long time.  I'll try to get her pics up later.  I just really liked todays letter and thought someone out there might like it too!  Enjoy!

 

 

Hey! This week was AWESOME.

 

We had 7 ideal lessons this week, meaning that we had 7 lessons with investigators in a member's home. I LOVE ideal lessons. The more we have, the more resolved I am to never teach an investigator outside of a member's home. The spirit is just so strong and the investigators seem to get a LOT more out of the lessons.

 

Last Monday was fun. Sister W and I went on a little comp date to Café Rio! :) YUMMM. We also tried to do a cool missionary photo shoot since the leaves outside are really pretty..and it turned out ok I think. I'll be sure to send all the pictures!

 

Tuesday we had a general authority come! His name is Elder Kopishke...or something. I don't know how to spell it, but he's from Germany. He taught us about the faith. He showed us the "faith cycle" and how faith is a principle of action and power. A lot of the time, we only say we have faith and then expect the power part of the equation to take place in the form of a miracle. But we forget that the miracle of faith comes through the action and out through the power! I made a visual and took a picture of it, so I'll send that to you too. It's pretty cool. Elder Kopishke said something I thought was funny, but it's true! He said, "I have the faith to move mountains! Just give me a pick and an ax and I'll get started!" We have to do our part. He also defined it in a way that really made sense to me. Faith is the attitude I have about the things that I can control. It was awesome. Do what you can, and then let God do His part. We may or may not see God's part of the faith cycle, but so long as we continually do our part, He will never let us down!! It was a really cool conference.

After the conference, we had an ideal lesson with Jay. There were two girls ages 8 and 10 who were running around like crazy!!! We tried to teach Jay, but he was really distracted. A few minutes into the lesson, I had an idea to have the girls help me out! I made a visual for every lesson I teach that I carry around with me everywehre, so I was prepared! I pulled it out and had the girls help us teach the lesson. I figured it wouldn't hurt, especially since Christ himself always says to not deny the little children and to let them come unto Him. It turned out really well. As we were leaving at the end of the night, Jay felt that he felt a sense of serenity in that home. It was powerful! I love teaching with little children!

 

The next day, we saw Rahfi. He's been hard to get ahold of for lessons. But we knew that he was studying for the ASVAP because he wants to go into the air force so instead of trying to get ahold of him for a lesson, we texted him to see if we could help him study! Ever since that text, he's been a lot more willing to meet with us for lessons. The part that he's really struggling with is the math section...and I love math! I've had to remind myself how to do a lot of it, but it's been fun to be a math tutor for a little bit!!

 

Friday was Halloween!!! They didn't want us out on the streets, so we got special permission to watch Despicable Me 2 and Frozen. The Centreville stake president, President Deon invited my entire zone of about 20 missionaries to come over to watch th emovies. It was so nice of them!! I had so much fun! I have to say, Frozen is my new favorite movie!!!!!!!!!! And since I'm a missionary, I connected it to missionary work every five seconds... it was perfect that a big theme of the movie was about having doors closed in your face! hahahaha!

 

Saturday we had another ideal lesson with Jay at the Grimes house. I LOVE THE GRIMES. They're the family with all the three cute little girls that I just love so much. Well, we went over there at 8 after the Grimes put their girls to bed and we had a lesson with Jay. Jay loves to talk. But he needs to talk so he can work out his concerns. It's really hard to pay attention sometimes when he goes on particularly long tangents about his experiences at SVU and members of the church that weren't very kind to him, especially when it's almost time for missionaries to turn into pumpkins. I was exhausted!!! I was so grateful for the Grimes- who helped teach a lot of the lesson. Jay really connected with them and asked if Brother Grimes would baptize him on the 22nd. Pretty cool. Jay is coming right along!!! We wanted to teach him about some of the commandments from lesson 4, but the spirit lead the lesson and somehow we ended up talking about the Great Apostasy. A lot of Jay's concerns result from the fact that he just doesn't understand what the Great Apostasy IS. So we cleared everything up and told him that he main part of the apostasy that he needs to understand is the fact that the priesthood authority was taken off of the earth. I can't wait for him to get a testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith because that will help him understand it so much better!!!

 

Church was awesome! Ashleigh told her boss taht she had to come into work later so taht she could come to church!! :) So she was there for testimony meeting. Sis W started the meeting off with an awesome testimony about the prophet Joseph Smith. I didn't feel like I needed to go up this month, but right at the very end of the meeting Sis W leaned over and said, "This might be the only time Ashleigh will see you get up and bear your testimony." I realized she's right, The next transfers are the 20th of this month, and I know taht I most likely won't be here for the next testimony meeting. Also, Ashleigh leaned to me and asked me to go.... How could I not get up there?! So after being guilted into it, right as the bishop was starting to stand up at the very end of the meeting, I jumped up and ran to the pulpit. It must have been a really funny sight. How many sister missionaries ahve you seen RUN up there at the very last humanly possible second? Ha. Oh well, I dind't care. I bore a quick testimony and just stared right at Ashleigh the entire time. She looked back at me with a huge grin on her face. After sacrament meeting she told me taht she thinks she'd be too shy to get up there any time soon, but she wanted to know what she would say if she ever did get up there. She told me she was going home to write down her testimony!! I love Ashleigh!!! I think we're going to be good friends for a long time.

 

MAN. We are keeping busy! We're having a ton of success! On top of all these ideal lessons with our investigators, we've been meeting with members, less actives and still finding new people to teach! I've never been so tired at the end of the day in my entire life! It's the greatest feeling ever.

 

I love you all so much! I hope you had a great Halloween and that you ate extra chilli for me! Speaking of which, I did not have chilli on Halloween. :( I had pizza... but I did have LOTS of chilli at the ward trunk or treat last weekend!!

 

God is good! Don't ever forget it!

 

Love you!
Sister Anderson

Official Washington DC South Mission Blog

Julie included this web address to her mission so everyone could check out what her mission has been up to.  Check it out!

http://wdcsmission.blogspot.com/p/mission-miracles.html

October 27, 2014

Trying to figure out how to pose!

There we go!

 

Hey family!!
This week was pretty great! We had a TON of member present lessons with all of the people we're teaching and both Ashleigh and Jay came to church yesterday! That was a miracle! We also had a lesson with Rahfi, our Muslim investigator, and we made a ton of progress with him! He used to never pray with us at all, but at the end of our lesson with him last night, we invited him to pray about when God wants him to be baptized! And he actually did it!!!!!! :D :D :D He said that December 27th really stood out to him because that was the day that his dad passed away two years ago. Rahfi is awesome. He still doesn't show any emotion in our lessons, which is frustrating at times because I'm the queen of emotion, but he is keeping commitments and praying to know that everything we teach is true. The best part of the lesson was at the end. I really felt like I needed to share my testimony of the Atonement. This week, I've really learned a TON about Jesus Christ and his Atonement.

 

We had an awesome Zone Conference. President Riggs had just come from a mission president's seminar with Elder Holland, who had just taught all the mission presidents to tell us that in order to really understand the Atonement, we really need to understand the fall. It was awesome. I wish there was a way I could teach it over an email, but there's a cool visual that goes along with it that's hard to explain. I'll have to show you some day. Anyway, my understanding of the Atonement has definitely increased. I've also really been studying 2 Nephi 2, 2 Nephi 9 and Alma 34. My love for the Savior has grown. There's a promise in Preach My Gospel that says something along the lines of how when your understanding of the Atonement grows, your desire to share the gospel WILL increase! That is SO TRUE!! I have seen a new drive in me to help everyone I see come closer to Christ! It's amazing! 

We had the ward Trunk or Treat on Saturday. We stapled mormon.org cards to candy and passed them out! :) it was a lot of fun! We have a really good relationship with our ward- it's so much fun!

 

I love you all!
Love,
Sister Anderson

I forgot to write about a really funny story!!!

We had a lesson with Jay in a member's home. We attempted to teach him the third lesson, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jay and this particular member were waaaay too similar, and didn't really get along. Jay told us he didn't read from the Book of Mormon and he wasn't in the best of moods because he just came from work- he was substituting for a fourth grade class. About halfway through, the lesson was going downhill, especially when Jay said something that wasn't very nice. I can't even remember what it was exactly, but it was something along the lines of how imperfect the people of the church are or something along those lines. I felt so strongly that I needed to stop him and be really bold with him. So I was. Turns out, he responds really well to boldness. I told him that I really felt like the lesson would have been better if he had kept his commitment to read 2 Nephi 31 because he would have been spiritually prepared. I kept talking and bore him my testimony of the Savior. I was about to stop talking and let Sister Williams take her turn to teach or testify when the member's new kitten snuck up behind me on the couch. It took a big swipe at the back of my head and hissed, which of course, totally freaked me out!!! At one point I was sitting on the very edge of the couch before the cat smacked me. In that moment, I freaked out. I was already on edge because I was being so incredibly BOLD with Jay, so when the cat attack happened, I screamed and turned SO fast that the momentum of my turn put me on the ground. I caught myself just in time so that I didn't face plant. I had no idea what had actually happened when I realized that I was on my hands and knees in the middle of a lesson!!!!!!! Talk about embarrassing. All I could do was laugh!!! It was so awkward!!!! At least Jay is a pretty chill person who just makes fun of me for it rather than judge me. That lesson will probably be the most memorable...

 

We also were asked to come and teach seminary on Friday! It was so much fun! I love seminary. We went to the Thiriot's home- they have seminary in their basement. We all split up into four groups and each group was assigned to an Elder or Sister. So I got to teach and role play with four of the seminary students from the ward. I LOVE it when members ask us to help them with their callings!!! :)

 



Sister Williams and Sister Anderson

Brother and Sister Riggs.  These are the missionaries that helped
 Julie with the whole "bed bug" situation!  Thank you Bro and Sister Riggs!

Carving pumpkins.

The finished product!

Sister Lamborn, Elder Ekins, he was a District Leader that just went home.

Sister Gray!

Sister Gray at transfers.

Trunk or Treating!

Haymarket Elders when Julie first got there.

 

October 20, 2014 - Pictures

Pumpkin carving with the Havrillas! They're a part member family we work with

October 6, 2014 -General Conference time

Helloooo!!!!

Oh what a great week!!! It was so busy! And by the grace of God, we were STILL able to hit our mission standard with 2 on date, 2 at church and 3 new investigators! :) God is good! It also helps to have a companion who is so extremely excited to dominate in everything! She just goes out and owns this area! I love it!!!

Let's see. So many miracles happened I don't even know where to start.

I guess I'll start with General Conference. I have never loved General Conference so much in my entire life. I think a huge part of it is because it's a world wide broadcast, and it makes me feel really close to my family because I know everyone's watching it at the same time as I am, listening to the same speakers, and feeling the same spirit! My favorite talks were President Uchtdorf's and Elder Bednar's! They are my favorites, after all! Oh! A Conference Miracle was during the Saturday afternoon session! We have two investigators on date for baptism right now: Ashleigh and Rahfi. They don't know each other, but they showed up late for the second session at the exact. same. time. It was crazy. But they walked in during the speech from the man who spoke spanish and was talking about coming unto Christ. Literally two seconds after our investigators sat down, the speaker said, "To you that aren't members of the church, the missionaries may have asked you to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by one holding authority." IT COULDN'T HAVE BEEN MORE PERFECT!!!! Man. After conference we had dinner with Ashleigh in a member's home and she said, "Hm, I think God's trying to tell met that I need to be baptized sooner or something..." AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy!!! Conference was pretty fun. We have four sets of missionaries in the apartment building where I live and there's a really nice theater room that we reserved all weekend. A member came with her lap top and we set up General Conference right here at the Marque! We put signs all over the place and tried to get people to come in an watch it with us. Only two popped their heads in, but even that was great! The theater room is in a busy hallway in our building, so lots of people walking by got to hear the words of our inspired church leaders!!!!!

Oh MIRACLE. I just have to say that I love love love love LOVE Sister Williams' greenie fire. We total up our numbers for the week every Sunday night. Last night it was 8:45pm. Sister Williams looked over at me while I was driving and said, "We are one new investigator short of reaching the mission standard. What are we goign to do?!?!" We didn't feel good about randomly tracting, and the few people that we discussed to try to turn them into new investigators didn't feel right. We were on our way home and were just thinking for a few minutes when all of a sudden Sis W says, "I've got it! We need to have a phone lesson with Debb!" I had never in my life as a missionary had a lesson with anyone over the phone, and it seemed really awkward to me in the moment. But I went along with it (feel the fear and do it anyway) and she called Debb. Oh my gosh. So background on Debb. She has a sister who lives in Hawaii and is a member of the church. Debb is a Methodist youth minister and LOVES what she does. I've gone to visit her in the past and she made it very clear that she loved where she was at. She says that she used to be apostate for 20 years, but found Jesus when her son was young. During her "apostate" years, she ran into some Elders who gave her a Book of Mormon. She took the book, but tore it apart and shut the elders down. Now she's had a change of heart!!! As Sister W talked with her on the phone, she asked Debb if she'd read the Book of Mormon and be baptized! :O ...Debb said that she's always been a searcher of the truth and she wondered aloud, "maybe I need to read the Book of Mormon with the mindset to find truth rather than to tear it down..." we were like YES YES YES!!! hahahaa :) It was such a miracle. We said a prayer with her on the phone and set a return appointment. Boom. New investigator. I'm so grateful that SIster W is so brave and excited to teach literally everyone with the resources that the Lord has blessed us with!

We had MVOC training. Mission Vehicle Operations Course. One of the senior couples had gone through the police acadamy and did the PVOC. He got special permission from President Riggs to to moderate the PVOC for our mission to train us all how to be better drivers....the reasoning was because our mission has the highest percentage of car accidents every year out of all the other missions in the WORLD. Scary thought...but it was really fun. There were four different "courses" where we drove in and out of cones and practiced backing with our companions backing us behind the car. We also did a couple courses where we drove up to 40 mph in the church parking lot and then slammed on the brakes to feel what the ABS feels like. I was SO grateful that I'm the designated driver right now because it was SO much fun!!!!!

We had a Return and Report meeting this week too. It's a regular meeting for trainers and trainees the week before transfers. (Yes transfers are coming up this Thursday...I have noooo idea what will happen. Most likely I'm going to stay to finish training Sister W) But it's a fun meeting. They split up the trainers and trainees in two separate rooms. President Riggs came with the group of trainers and the Assistants to the President went with the trainees. We were all asked to come up with a list of things that our trainees were doing well, along with a list of things they could improve on. The trainees were asked the same thing of us. Then president Riggs and the assistants traded places and read off the list of things. It was really neat to see that our trainees actually notice things that we are doing well. I think I'm just really hard on myself as a trainer... I never feel like I do right with Sister W. She looks up to me so much and of course I mess up because I'm human... but it was just really good for me to hear the things that they noticed we were doing well and some things that we could improve on to help them learn better. I love SIster Williams so much! It took all transfer for us to figure each other out, so we'd better not get transferred because we are a powerhouse companionship! Now that we understand each other and how to react to each other, we are just going to tear it up! We set a goal for next week to double the mission standard! I'll follow up with you about how it went next Monday! Expect miracle stories!! :)

It's been such a crazy week. We had a ton of long meetings that took away from our companion studies a few of the days this week, so we couldn't prepare as well as we wanted to, but we still saw miracles and hit the mission standard. God is good. This really is HIS work!!!!!!!!

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!!! How are you doing with reading the Book of Mormon?!

Hey, I hear that Dan Hernandez is coming to my mission!?!?! That's SOOO AWESOME!!!! When will he get here? Is he going to be English speaking or is he going to be in the Spanish program?

I love my mission. Being a missionary is just so much fun!!!

Love you!
Sister Anderson

October 13, 2014

I experienced the coolest miracle of my entire mission this week!!!

Okay, don't get me wrong, I have lots of really awesome miracles every day, but with this particular miracle, I saw the effects of it immediately! It happened on Tuesday night. We had just got out of a reaaaalllyyyyy long lesson with an older gentleman who lives in our apartment complex who loves to talk. He talked our ears off for TWO WHOLE HOURS. Ugh it was so long. My ADD mind was going insane! hahaha! All of our appointments fell through, so we got into our car and pulled off to the side of our apartment complex parking lot. We prayed about what we should do because neither of us felt right about tracting, and the members we had put in as back ups all had young children who we knew were in bed. It was 8 at night. We sat there in silence as we both thought about what to do and I had a random thought, "We need to go to the church!" I tried to decide if that was just me thinking it, or if God used the spirit to direct my thoughts. I wondered why we would need to go to the church because there wouldn't be anyone there - our ward's mutual had been cancelled for the week due to an upcoming temple trip this weekend. The thought came again, "We need to go to the church!!!" I decided that it wouldn't hurt to say my thought out loud to see what Sister WIlliams thought. If she shut it down, then we'd figure something else out. I said out loud, "Hey Sis Williams, I just had a thought that we need to go to the church right now." To my surprise (mostly because she disagrees with me on nearly everything) Sister Williams IMMEDIATELY said without a moment's hesitation, "GO TO THE CHURCH." I was only taken aback for a split second before I put the car into drive and headed toward our church building. It was hilarious! On the way there I wondered aloud, "I wonder who God wants us to meet at the church tonight....hmmm!" We pull into the church parking lot where there are two cars parked on one side. We said a prayer and walked in. There was a man with three kids sitting on the couch in the foyer. I introduced myself and found out that they're actually from the Gainesville ward. The man was the ward mission leader! We talked with him for a few minutes about the work in both of our wards before he asked what we were doing there. We told him that we didn't know exactly, but we were following a prompting that the Lord had given us to come to the church. The ward mission leader smiled and said, "Wow. There is a non member using my cell phone in the other room. He wanted to talk to your Bishop to see if he could take the missionary lessons and get some help with a few things." My jaw just dropped. :O "Sweet," I said, "God is so good! There is no way I believe in coincidences!!!" We talked with him and his three kids until the non member guy was done talking on the phone. We introduced ourselves and found out his name is Jay. Jay went to SVU for college and knows a TON of Mormons. We just got to know his religious background and listened to him talk for an entire hour while he told us how he chooses to live the Word of Wisdom because it makes sense to him and also how he's been told that he's a Mormon in denial. He's had a few girls tell him that they couldn't marry him because he wasn't Mormon, and he's also seen a lot of members go through the motions of getting a temple recommend that they were never worthy of. He said that people at SVU used to try to convert him all the time because they wanted him to be their "convert trophy". We just listened to him. He really needed to talk. At the end, we shared with him a few verses from the Book of Mormon. I pulled out my extra copy that I always carry with me and held it in both hands. I told him that this book means the world to me. I told him that I don't want to force it down his throat because he means so much more than a trophy to me. I started to say more, but he cut me off to ask for a copy of his own. It was awesome! He then was the one to ask us to meet up again. He said, "Now, I know you'll probably try to meet with me again to try to convert me or something. I don't know what protocol is for this, but..." he thought for a minute, "Do you have a piece of paper? I'll give you my phone number" He went from talking himself out of meeting with us, but then talked himself back into it! It was the funniest thing!! It was cool to see the spirit working on him. We made a return appointment with him for Saturday.

This was such a cool miracle! I mean, I have promptings from the spirit every day. I do my very very best to follow them, but I've never seen anything quite so significant come from it. Who knows why God gave me those promptings before? I have no idea! But I hope someone's life was a little better off because of it! Maybe God gave me those previous promptings to go to a certain place to get me out of the way of a potential car accident or something. Either way, it doesn't matter! All that matters is that we act on the promptings taht the Lord gives us. This time, the result of acting was finding a man who is so desperately needs the gospel in his life. God truly is behind this work.

We taught him at the church again on Saturday. It was a great lesson. We taught him the Restoration and he understood it all so well. He was able to tell us his understanding of the priesthood and apostasy in his own words. It was one of the best lessons ever. We put him on date for November 22. He is one of the most prepared people I have ever met!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited for him!! :) :) :)

We taught our other investigators in members homes this week. We taught Ashleigh in the bishop's home! It was the best lesson we've ever had with her! We taught her about repentance and she asked, "Will you teach me what all of the commandments are? I don't know them, but I want to keep them!" :) She's progressing so much. We also had a lesson with Rahfi in the Thiriots' home. They're the seminary teachers in the ward and they have seminary in their basement. We went down there for our lesson and used some of the seminary videos and visuals to help Rahfi, who comes from a Muslim background, to understand the atonement of Jesus Christ. It was wonderful!

The work is working! And I know it's because God's the one behind everything. He's soooo good.

I'm doing so well. I'm still learning a lot as a trainer, especially patience and humility, which are great lessons to learn.

I love you all so much! Keep reading the Book of Mormon! It can change your life daily if you let it! All you have to do it read, ponder and pray about it!

Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Anderson

October 20, 2014

Hello family!

I'm getting to the point in my mission where Monday comes around and I have literally no idea what happened since I last sat down to write you an email. So it takes me just as long as it took me to type up those 68 page essay emails that I used to write at the beginning of my mission, but I don't have as much content.

I guess a highlight of the week was when we taught Jay again. We were trying SO hard to find a family that would let us teach his lesson in their home, and it seemed like literally everyone that we asked turned us down for whatever reason. It was hard! But we knew that we needed to teach him in a members home, so we kept trying. We tried just about every active family in the ward when finally the Schmidts said we could come over. Phew. It's such a HUGE wave of relief when things go through. Jay connected really well with Brother Schmidt because they have the same sense of humor. It was pretty funny. They're both really good at the one the spot one liners! A lot of Jay's concerns have to do with him feeling judged. He went to SVU for school at a time in his life when he was mourning over the death of his mom. He said that the majority of the students at the time were all members of the church who tried to convert him, and they weren't sensitive about it. He had a few people tell him that he wasn't going to the Celestial kingdom... Man. I wish all the members of the church realized that pushing people into the church isn't missionary work. It's all about love! Thankfully, Jay made a few friends who loved him enough to support him and help him through that hard time in his life!! We started to teach him about the Plan of Salvation. Jay's understanding of his life is to live, serve and die and that's it. So to tell him that he lived in heaven with God before he came here was a whole new concept for him. It's really cool to see him put the pieces together. We started to teach him about the pre-earth life and he said, "Oh, a scripture from Jeremiah is coming to my mind about how God knew us before we went into the womb or something" I was like, "Yes!! Jeremiah 1:5!!!! You've got it!" It's exciting! :) We only got through half the lesson with him because he talks a lot. But that's okay because talking things through is how he understands them. I love it when he talks everything through because I can literally hear how the spirit is working within him. He tries so hard to talk himself into believing that what we say isn't true, but then he starts talking about how it totally makes sense! He just talks himself into knowing for himself that what we're teaching him is true!! It's the best ever!! It's evidence to me that the spirit really is the TRUE teacher. As missionaries, we just provide the environment for the spirit to take over through personal stories, scriptures, testimony and promised blessings. When the spirit is present, I know that I am doing my job!:) At the end of our lesson, we didn't even invite him to baptism before he said, "Sisters, I have been really thinking and praying a lot about this. And I can see baptism as more of a possibility for me." :D

We had a really great week, but we did not hit mission standard. We still had really great numbers this week (don't worry, each number accounted for has a person that I love backing it up!) so of course, I wasn't going to complain. Our mission has had an even bigger push for working with members right now, and we've hit the ground running. We're just trying to find the balance so we can still find new investigators to teach. I am fully aware that we need to improve, but I was so grateful for the week that we had! Sister Williams took it really hard though. This is the first week that we didn't hit at least 2/3 areas of our mission standard... Ha! I wanted to tell her that she should serve in the Potomac Mid Singles ward where it was considered a tender mercy of the Lord if we found even one person to teach!!! It's just funny how different our missions are.

Since we've been teaching Jay the Plan of Salvation, a big focus in my studies this has been about the atonement of Jesus Christ in preparation to teach him. It's truly amazing to me how we, and by we I mean people everywhere, don't realize that we need a savior until we realize that we are fallen. I am so grateful that Jesus Christ came to the earth and performed the atonement for us so that we could live again. I always knew that was true, but now it really means something to me. I love our Father's perfect Plan of Happiness and I feel so blessed that I've known about it since I can remember. I also feel really blessed for this time in my life that I've had to really break it down and seek to understand as much of it as I possibly can. I can't wait to teach the rest of the lesson to Jay because understanding the Plan of Salvation is what changes people. I know that because it's changed me and how I see myself, the people around me, God and the world!

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!
Oh and mom- sorry I've been a bum about sending pictures! I'll be better about that!

Love,
SIster Anderson

September 29, 2014 -What a Week

What a week!

On Sister Williams' first week here, she accidentally called someone in our phone named Ron Ryan. It was really funny. She was falling asleep and as she was nodding off, her hand bumped Ron's contact and called him! She realized what had happened, freaked out and hung up as quickly as she could! She asked me who Ron Ryan was, and I told her that I had no idea. We looked him up in the area book, and realized that he was a potential investigator that Sister Lamborn had contacted last spring. We decided to send him a message to see if we could set up an appointment. He actually got back to us!!! This week was the first time that worked out for the all us to meet up for a lesson. It was pretty cool. Ron told us that he had previously dated a girl who was Mormon and she never told him anything about it. He was curious!! (Man, that girlfriend missed out on a golden missionary opportunity. That was evidence to me of the importance of ALWAYS opening our mouths!) We had a great lesson with Ron and set up a return appointment for two weeks out... He's a busy guy with work.

We have still been meeting with Lei. Lei's friend, Nick, had just moved in to help Lei and his mom pay for rent, so we invited Nick to join us in a lesson. He willingly came out and asked a ton of questions, but he is SO incredibly closed off. It came to the point where I just stopped talking because teaching a wall would have been more effective. Sister Williams has a lot of fun trying to teach Nick because he is really analytical, just like she is. I feel bad for Nick. He has no faith. He doesn't even have a desire to believe. It's really hard for me to see how he's okay with where he's at. I know that some day he will remember my testimony and my promise to him that the Book of Mormon really does contain the answers to all of his questions.

We have an investigator named Rahfi. Rahfi is Muslim. I have never had a Muslim listen to the message of the Restored gospel before. Aparently, we were supopsed to have Rahfi meet with President Riggs' 1st or 2nd counselor right after the first lesson. But I didn't know that until after the third or fourth lesson with him!!! I felt sooo bad! But hopefully we're going to set something up this week before we teach him again. Teaching Rahfi has been cool because we have all of his lessons in a member's home. Rahfi knew one of our members from when he played on the church basketball team. And that coach so happnes to be one of the best member missionaries in the universe!!! It's soooo much better to have lessons in members homes. You should definitely offer to have missionaries and their investigators have lessons in our home!!! That's one of the number one things I'm looking forward to doing when I'm a member missionary.

We had a misison wide Sisters Conference on Friday. I sang a musical number with Sister Jorgensen, Sister Savage, and Sister Richardsen. Our accompanist, Sister Herring- who was in Women's Chorus with me at BYU, took an arrangement of I Know that My Redeemer Lives and added four part harmony to it. It was really fun. I love bearing my testimony through music. It's my favorite.

The women's broadcast was this week too!!... We missed a huge chunk of it. I was a little bummed, but I was definitly okay with it. My number one responsibility is to preach the gospel, and that's what we did. I really had to go to the bathroom, so we stopped at a gas station. There was a man there who said that he knows all the missionaries who come through to use the bathroom. Haha. (I was surprised when he said that he didn't know me...after all, I am the queen of the throne!! :) hahahahaha I have just been drinking a ton of water, okay?!!) But he said he was a non-practicing Muslim! He's the second Muslim who wanted to know more!!! My jaw dropped! He has a lot of soul searching questions. He lives in Manassas, so I can't wait to refer him to the missionaries that serve there...we walked into the broadcast right when President Uchtdorf was speaking. I'm grateful that the talks are printed in next month's Ensign!!!

GUESS WHO I SAW THIS WEEK!!!?!?!?!????!!!! My old investigator, Donna Woods!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh it was such a huge tender mercy!!!!!!! A couple of weeks ago, Donna messaged me on facebook, well she commented on my profile picture actually, but she told me that she had moved and gave me her address so that I could come over again. She's not in my area, but since my area was just up the road from where she lives, I was able to go on a mini exchange with the sisters who are serving in the area that Donna lives in so that I could introduce them to her!!! We went to her house, and I before I could reach up my hand to knock my musical knock on her door, she ripped the door open and rushed forward to give us a HUGE hug!!!! Oh my gosh, I love Donna Woods with all my heart!!! She is seriously the sweetest. It was even cooler because while I was in Centreville, the first thing I would do would be to follow up with her to see if she had read the Book of Mormon. I haven't seen her in over three months, and the very first thing she tells me is that she hasn't been reading because she's been so stressed out and busy with her move. Eventhough she didn't read, it made me happy to see that she knows that I expect her to read the Book of Mormon! :) She updated me on everything about her life as if we were life long best friends and then told us that the reason why she didn't get baptized is because she want to be a godmother to her sister's little girl. Which is the same concern that she told me when I was in Centreville. But she said that she just has to go to the Catholic church for a year to become a godmother, and then after that, she will get baptized. Oh Donna. At least she didn't completely close the door to baptism. But I know her new sister missionaries will do a good job clearing that up with her. I just know that Donna is meant to be baptized. What are the chancecs of her inviting me over when I was so close to where she now lives?? The pass off from me to her new missionaries was so smooth! Miracles DO happen!!!

Ashleigh's back on date!!!! She's the one who showed us her special spot in the woods. She's facing a  TON of opposition from her family about learning about the Mormon church. We met with her just last night and had a GREAT lesson with her. We started teaching her about the Plan of Salvation, and as soon as we started and I pulled out my visual for her (She's the most visual person I've ever met), she just satrted smiling and quietly giggling. It was so funny! It was awesome to tell her that that feeling was coming directly from God through His Spirit. We didn't teach through to the end of the lesson because we taught to her needs. We got to the Atonement, and Sister Williams pulled out her iPad out of the blue and asked Ashleigh to seek God's will to choose a date for her baptism. My jaw dropped a little, but I quickly caught myself. Man, from my perspective it seemed to come out of nowhere, but it seemed okay to Ashleigh. She looked down for like 2 seconds and picked January 24th. It was so fast. We had her kneel in prayer and ask God out loud if that date was the date He intended for her to be baptized. The spirit was so strong. She was so sincere. It was the greatest feeling to be a part of that moment. I was in awe! Ashleigh Fisher is back on date. It's amazing. I think it went so well because right at the beginning before I prayed, Ashleigh said, "I'm so excited to learn!" She came with the expectation for God to teach her, and she was edified. Personally, I think that she will end up being baptized before January 24th, but we'll see how everything works out. It's all in God's hands!

I love my mission. In the past few weeks, I have been so incredibly humbled. God truly is shaping me. He's changing my perspective on life, eventhough I'm not always the most shapeable person. I'm so grateful that he's patient with me and my endless cries for help.

I love you all so much. It's funny to me that eventhough we're miles apart and I only get to catch a glimpse of your lives, I've never felt closer to my family. Weird huh? It's all God's fault! :) The gospel is designed to bring families together.

Keep reading the Book of Mormon! Or listen to it! That's one way God helps me feel closer to you guys! It's cool to be reading the same words and feeling the same spirit that you are!

Love you,
Sister Anderson