From One Washington to the Other: May 5, 2015 - NEXT WEEK IS MOTHER'S DAY!!!

NEXT WEEK IS MOTHERS DAY AND I GET TO SKYPE YOU AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even believe how fast the months have flown by. Christmas feels like it was a few weeks ago! haha!

We have had the craziest week. We worked a lot with our less active members...and it would be really easy to feel like we were taken advantage of. But they are a part of Christ's church and NO effort is wasted when trying to help them come back!

We had a "lesson" with Mercedes...She told us her entire life story about how she joined the church when she was 20 and then went inactive when she moved to a new ward because it wasn't as welcoming. That was a testimony builder to me to love and welcome EVERY single person that comes to church. So now whenever I see a new face in our ward, I go up to them immediately. And I am going to make a very conscious effort to do that when I get home from my mission especially!! It means more when it comes from the members rather than the missionaries. I mean, it's the missionaries JOB to make sure that all of God's children are accounted for. But I am going to be the BEST fellowshipper when I get home! I promise!

Anyway. SO Mercedes is totally trying to convert us to the McLean Bible church. It's really funny. Her husband, Mike, gave me a cd of his pastor and told me to listen to it. I can't listen to it now, but I am curious. I always save everything that other people give me to convert me to their churches. :) I have a few pass along cards from the McLean Bible church and some protestant churches from people that I've met on my mission. I think it's so interesting! I mean, I'm giving out cards to invite people to MY church, so I'll take their cards too. I'm going to make a big scrapbook after my mission- I'm so excited!

We also met with Sister Fuentes, another less active member. She made us dinner...and we watched her make it. We talked with her about the gospel as she literally DUMPED in a pound or more of garlic into spaghetti sauce. I mean, it was good, but afterwards Sister Udall and I could NOT talk to each other because it smelled so bad. And we kept burping too- we figured that our bodies aren't used to that much garlic in our systems. hahaha it was so funny!

Anyway. But both of these lessons with our less actives were really hard. They both took two and a half hours.....and we are specifically trained to be in and out of an appointment after 45 minutes. It was rough. I just felt taken advantage of, and we weren't as productive with our time, in terms of talking to as many people as we would have otherwise. But these women needed it. We won't let it happen again in the future, but we helped them. They just needed to talk. The next time we meet with both of them, we are going to lovingly make very clear our purpose as missionaries and as them if they will let us teach them our missionary lessons. :)

As I've told you multiple times, our mission is really focusing on teaching the members. It has been going so well! The purpose of teaching members our lessons is to help them to be thinking about the doctrine of the church all the time so when they have missionary opportunities, they are ready and prepared to share the gospel. And then eventually invite their friends to take the missionary lessons!!! The most spiritual lessons that I've had this week were with members. Dorothy Greenhalgh emailed you... we've been meeting with them and I just LOVE those girls SO much. Every time we get out of a lesson with a family that has teenager, Sister Udall tells me that I will have a future calling in the youth program. I sure hope so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVED young womens. I had great leaders that really helped me, and I want to pay it forward! As we were leaving the Greenhalgh's, Sister Greenhalgh called out after us, "Thanks for always coming over! Maybe next time we'll invite someone to come to our lesson!!" :) Missionary work is totally on their minds. I love it!

We had another great member lesson where we SANG almost the entire time! Sister Gawthrop came with us to a lesson in her neighborhood last night and the lesson fell through. SO as backup, she invited us in and started to sing hymns. She LOVES to sing. And so do I! Sister Udall had a great idea to sing a song related to the plan of salvation and then discuss the principles taught afterward. That was probably my favorite lesson! I learned SO MUCH and the spirit was SO strong! I love that I can teach the missionary lessons in SO many different ways. I can sing-teach! :) :) :) :)

We've been doing a lot of service lately too. There is a less active lady in our ward who broke her foot and we've been going over every now and then to help her clean her house. She's kind of a hoarder, so I get grossed out and then get into CLEANING MODE. I think God is preparing me to be as clean as possible for when I have my own home someday. :) I actually enjoy cleaning now- I know crazy!

We also helped a lady in the ward who is SO pregnant and going through a divorce (saddest story ever) clean her car. She has two other daughters who are ages 5 and 8 who take advantage of her and don't help her at all. Anyway, her daughters were taken away from her for whatever reason and she was left with a terribly messy van- just imagine the back of the big red toaster van and multiply it by 10. It was so bad. But we cleaned it all for her so that she would have a clean car to take her new baby boy home in. :) And another surprise- I actually like cleaning out cars too! (God really has been changing me!!) haha!

Well. I hope you all have a great week. AHHH I can't believe Brendan's going to be ordained a DEACON. wut. That makes ME feel old!! Dayle looks soooo good in his prom pictures and I'm so happy Belana got that monster scholarship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you all so much and I can't wait to see you next week!!!

Love,

Sister Anderson