Hello! I don't think I have any pictures from this week...haha sorry! I'll try to be better about that for next week!
The days are all starting to run together. Sister Udall and I decided that a day feels like a week and a week feels like a day. Time is just so weird on a mission.
Well, I loved General Conference! I just love that we are blessed to hear from our prophet every six months. I KNOW that he is a man called of God! It's weird to think that I've watched two conferences on my mission...I've been out for six months! I still feel like I just got off the plane after the MTC. I know the rest of the time is going to fly by. I really wish it would slow down a little bit. I loved M. Russell Ballards talk about following up and missionary work! I think he was the one who invited families and missionaries to write each other about what they've been studying in preach my gospel! I LOVE that! We are going to strengthen each other so much. I'll start by sharing a little of what I learned today from my Preach My Gospel studies. :) Today I read about the Plan of Salvation in lesson 2 of chapter 3. I thought a lot about agency and how it really is a gift from God, given to us to be able to choose for ourselves. It shows how merciful God is...he doesn't want to force anything on us! Under one of the sections of scriptures to read and other gospel resources links to the lessons, there is the section of "agency and accountability" from For the Strength of the Youth pamphlet. It talks about how there are consequences for every single choice we make, whether it be good or bad. Immediately, I thought of Dad teaching me that very principle when I was really young. I'm grateful that I was taught such great principles in my home when I was little!!!!!! Now I have the chance to share it with someone who may or may not have learned the same thing when they were younger! :)
We had lots of miracles this week!
We met an older couple from India named Anita and Shashi Bagga. We found them about a month ago by accidentally knocking on the wrong door when we were trying to go visit one of our less active members. Haha. Of course, I don't believe in coincidences, so we went back last Monday evening to bring them a copy of the Book of Mormon in Hindi. They remembered us from before and were WAY excited about receiving a book about Jesus Christ written in their language. There is a little bit of a language barrier, but we communicate well enough to share what we know about Jesus Christ and how we can come closer to Him. Shashi, the hubby, speaks better English than Anita. But Anita is just the cutest!!! About half way through our lesson with them, she started saying things like, "I feel good! I feel happy! You make me happy! You come here to make me happy!" She said a few other things in Hindi and Shashi translated for us to tell us that Anita feels like we were sent to her from God. It was really touching. It's so cool to me that I get to be a blessing for God's children that come from all different places in the world. It just blows my mind! God is so good! I don't even have to leave the country and I get to teach people from India, Sierra Leon, Ghana, France, Brazil, Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador....... so many different places. It's such a blessing.
Tuesday we had a miracle lesson with one of our less actives. She home schools and is usually really distracted by her two children, ages 8 and 2. So our lessons are usually all over the place. But this time, God used me and the lesson went so much better!! I think that one of my gifts is working with kids. I love playing with them and talking to them- kids are just so much easier to be myself around! Anyway. Her 2 yr old son was sitting at the table going through some flash cards. Immediately, I had the thought to help him out! And of course, that was a prompting I had no problem following! Up to this point, the 2 yr old was really shy around me, but after playing with him and helping him with his flash cards, he really opened up and I was able to play with him and distract him well enough for his mom to feel the spirit while Sister Udall taught her about how we really do have a living prophet on the earth today. At first, I felt bad that I left Sister Udall hanging. haha. But at the end of our appointment, our less active that we were teaching really opened up and admitted that she does know that she needs the power of the priesthood in her life. Wow. The only thing that could have gotten her to realize that was the Spirit of God. My gift of distracting young children came to good use! I feel so good knowing that God used my gifts for the benefit of his children. It was such a blessing!
We had a lesson with a couple from Iran!!! They used to be Muslim, but were tired of it for whatever reason and decided to move to America to be Christian. They speak Farsi and we have trouble understanding each other. BUT! We found a man from our ward that lived in Iran when he was in the military and learned Farsi while he was there! Miracle!! It was amazing. I love trying to guess what they are talking about. Haha! We didn't get very far in our lesson with them because we were trying to explain the book of Mormon and how it compares and differs from the Bible. He keeps asking us why Mormons are different from other Christians is we keep saying that we are representatives of Jesus Christ. SO we are going to teach him the Restoration the next time we see them :)
Ether 12:27 is still my theme scripture. I'm learning and relearning how to be patient with the weaknesses that I have. And I'm learning how to put my newly found strengths to good use for the Lord!
Well that's all for this week folks! Sister Udall and I are miracle workers in the Centreville 2nd ward! I love working here in this area. We have great members. Ha, our ward mission leader is a dermatologist- he prescribed me some acne medication because my face is pretty bad right now. I told him I feel like a 13 year old girl haha. And a few weeks ago he polished my shoes! Brother Stark is seriously the greatest ward mission leader ever!!!!!!
I love you all!! I can't wait to hear about your Preach My Gospel studies!
Love
Sister Anderson
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| I just really like this picture of Julie! |
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