I'M IN A FAMILY WARD! - Feb 10, 2014

I'M IN A FAMILY WARD AHHHHHH I'M SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it. I feel more at home. I'm in the Centreville 2nd ward. My companion's name is Sister McKee. She's from Cambridge, Idaho and is the youngest in her family. She has two older brothers. She was in the MTC the same time that Sister Hansen was! So she's been out 11 months. It's nice having companions who've been out a lot longer than me-they know what they're doing! She's really sweet. She says she's shy, but she talks to me a whole lot! :) She loves basketball, volleyball and track, doesn't really sing on key, and has beautiful thick black hair! (Hopefully she'll let me take a picture with her so I can send it to you! haha!)

Sister Anderson and Sister McKee!

 My new address is 14203 Lotus Ln #625 Centreville, VA 20120. We have our own apartment. President Riggs doesn't like companionships to have roommates, which makes sense. They're too much of a fun distraction! :) I liked roommates, but it's nice to be able to focus. (Especially since I have a hard enough time focusing in the first place!) The apartment is kinda dirty...there isn't too much clutter, but it looks like no one has really deep cleaned it in a while. Gross. So I'll spend a good chunk of my preparation day today scrubbing... We have our own washer/dryer!! WOO! I don't have to spend almost 2 bucks on each load!

 

If you want to send me letters/packages, we have our very own mailbox! It's like ours at home where you need a key to get in.

 

Our ward feeds us REALLY well. We have a ton of food in our apartment. I won't need to go grocery shopping today! It's so nice not to have to worry about that. This ward is really great. The bishop and ward mission leader meet with the missionaries EVERY week!!!  They are so serious about this work and they want to do everything that they can to help us! It makes me so happy. It all starts with the bishop and the leadership. Once they're on board, the work is so much smoother.

 

Family wards just feel so much more normal than single adult wards. The lady who taught Relief Society yesterday reminded me of a mix between Sister Bates and Leslie Burnette. So, obviously, I LOVED it.

 

This ward has a set of sisters and a set of elders.

 

At the moment we don't have too many people that we're working with. There are a TON of less active members in this ward, and the ward mission leader, Brother Stark, wants the sisters to work with them because people have a soft spot for sisters aparently. So the elders have all the investigators at the moment.  

 

I'm glad baseball's started up again. Brendan's a good player. I love bragging about how my family's the baseball family! :) Give Lisa Jones a hug for me! She's a good coach. That'll be a lot of fun.

 

This area is a lot of fun. We've met a few really great people from knocking doors, and we'll check back with them this week. There's one couple that we checked on my first day here, and their story broke my heart. The sisters before me went to check on the wife, who was a former investigator of the church. The husband opened the door and said, "You are heaven sent. Come back tomorrow when my wife is here." So they came back the next day and met the wife...she is literally crazy. She took some weight loss pills three months ago that messed with the chemistry in her brain. And now she thinks that the FBI is always after her....and that's all she can talk about. The husband likes us coming over and talking to her. She is the sweetest lady. She really truly believes that the FBI is after her. Her hubby, Ray, is so sad. He is a really tough looking man from Queens, NY. He just sits there in the living room chair, exhausted and tired. He's desperate. While his wife talked about one of her stories about how she ran away from the FBI with Sis McKee, I started up a side conversation with Ray. Of course, we got to the subject of religion and God, and he claims to not believe. I asked him why, and he started his story, but never finished. I can't wait to go back and talk to him again. I was able to make him laugh for a little bit, and that made me feel good. He says that he thinks I'm cool, so I made a new friend. :)

 

I can't wait for the miracles that Sister McKee and I will be a part of in this area. The Centreville 2nd ward is the best in Virginia!!!!!!

 

Love you! Have a great week!

Sister Anderson