From One Washington to the Other: April 14, 2014

Hello!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Sissy Anderson (as Brendan would call me!)