Okay! Sorry, I split up my email time today so now I can email you!
I feel like a lot happened this week, but when I think back on what we did, I am having a hard time remembering! It was a tough week for me. I felt like more people were talking about me coming home than usual, so that made it really hard. Come on people-I have two whole months left!!! We taught a lot of members this week, which has been really productive because I'm finally feeling like I'm getting to know the ward.
We were looking through our area book and found a former investigator named Jamie. She was taught be elders about a year and a half ago! So we called her up and she set up an appointment with us! Woo! We invited one of our members to come with us, and we had a great first lesson with her. Sis Savage didn't think it went very well, but I thought it was great! Jamie just has a lot of issues with the Book of Mormon. She says that she needs to pray about reading it before she even cracks it open to read it... that was kinda weird. But accepted the invitation to read the into before we came back this week. She's really friendly and says that she just wants to do what God wants her to do, so we made it very clear that so long as she is open and actually reads the Book of Mormon with real intent and THEN prays about it, God will let her know that this is where she needs to be! So pray for Jamie that she'll actually read it!
We had a lesson with a member who is semi-active. She is so sweet. We decided we were going to start teaching her the missionary lessons to help her strengthen her faith. She hasn't gone to church since October. :/ So we started with the Restoration. This time we taught using the pamphlet! We gave her a copy, said a prayer and started. We had her open up to the very first page and I started talking about how the gospel blesses our fmailies. She started crying! We sat there and let her feel the spirit for a while and finally she said, "I need to come back to church. I have realy missed this." I wasn't even talking about church!!! I LOVE it when the spirit is the real teacher!!!!!! It was really powerful.
We also got into contact with another less active member who Sister Christensen and I ALWAYS tried to reach out to. Her name is Rachel and she finally was home when we stopped by. We had a good lesson with her and got to know her. Her husband isn't a member and she hasn't come to church in eight years! But she wants to meet with us at least every other week!!! Wooo!
We did a family history night with a recent convert in our ward! It was so much fun. I am learning to LOVE family history work. I can't wait to be able to find my own family names and take them to the temple. We got our recent convert started, and she said that she wouldn't be able to stop. The spirit of Elijah is STRONG. Seriously, if you haven't already, go to familysearch.org and mess around with it. Ask the family history consultants in the ward to help you get started, because once you start, it'll be hard to stop!
We had stake conference this weekend. It was all about hastening the work of salvation. President and SIster Riggs spoke, the temple president and his wife spoke, and then the stake president spoke. Every aspect of the work is being hastened and it's so exciting!! Missionary work, temple and family history work, activation and retention, you name it. The Lord is hastening all of it. They also talked a lot about ward councils- the general authority who came (can't remember his name) asked the ward council members, "wouldn't it be nice if you had two full time assistants to help you get everything done within your calling??" hahaha it was awesome. I really do want the ward to use us more! So long as we are doing the Lord's work, we are here to help!!!! :) President Riggs said that members should pray every day for opportunities to share the gospel. I'm definitely going to do that when I get home.
Today we went to DC with some of our sisters. It was so much fun! My new best friend is Sister Liu. She's from Taiwan and is HILARIOUS. I think she feels left out sometimes because her english isn't 100%, so I went up and just hung out with her...plus the other sisters were talking about how they did dance in high school and their perfect hair and nails or something...so I didn't mind leaving the conversation. Haha! We're going on exchanges with the Centreville sisters tomorrow and I get to go with Sister Liu!!! I'm way excited. We're going to have so much fun!!! :)
Well. I think that's all. Holy cow I am just freaking out over the fact that my mission is flying by. I'm doing my very best to stay focussed and work extra hard. I want to know that I gave everything to the Lord!
Well, I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week! Don't forget to pray every single day for missionary opportunities!!
Love,
Sister Anderson
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