From One Washington to the Other: 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!!! :)