So I wasn’t going to write but a lot of things have happen

So right now I feel suuuuuuper stressed because tomorrow Guatemala is going to protest and when there are protests it’s impossible to go to Xela so I have to go there tonight! We have soooooo many things to do and so little time. I’m not even all the way packed yet! Yikes, but I will only have my big blue suitcase and the little one. The gray one is broken and I decided to give away basically all my stuff anyways because ppl here need the things waaaaaaaaaay more than I do. 

But other than the stress of today this week was probably one of the greatest weeks of my mission! It was so full of miracles. And it makes me not want to go home even more! But as mom said in the email she sent me that my spirit is strong and I could do this forever but my body cannot. But the biggest miracle was Yeison got baptized! It was crazy how everything happened! We so felt like he was ready to be baptized but this last week we weren’t able to see him at all! But on Friday this week we had a visit with him. The spirit was SO STRONG! You could have cut it. He has always wanted to get baptized but he was scared of what his mom would say because she is super catholic and didn’t want him to get baptized. So my companion invited him to ask him to pray and ask God to reaffirm his feelings and to give him the answer that he needs. So he got down and prayed and I seriously have never felt the spirit so strong in my life. And we asked him how he felt and he said he got his answer and he felt happy. And the spirit told me and my companion that we needed to ask him to be baptized for the next day. And he accepted but later he said it would be better Sunday morning. Afterwards the fear of his mom starting sinking in and he decided the next week would be better. We couldn’t believe what was happening and we felt he needed to be baptized on Sunday. He had his interview on Saturday and leaving the interview he said, well my baptism is going to be tomorrow. So we filled up the baptism font and got everything going. He talked to his mom and she got mad but told him he could do what he wanted. The baptism was at 7am before church at 8am. We were so worried that the ward wasn’t going to support us and him, but a ton of ppl showed up. It was miracle after miracle. Seriously words cannot describe how wonderful it was. I feel so blessed that I was able to be a part of it. Yeison is such a great kid and I KNOW he will help many ppl come unto Christ and that he will be a great leader someday. Now we only need the wards help since he doesn’t have much support from his family. But seriously best thing ever! 

My companion is going to have changes too. She will be a new sister leader. I totally knew it. But I’m going to miss Hna Jose sooooo stinking much. I love that girl. I have learned and grown so much during the time we had together. We had our rough patches like every companion. But I love her guts.

Truth be told I DO NOT WANT TO GO HOME AT ALL!!!! But I just got to accept it. I’m going to miss this country and the ppl that I have learned to love here. I’m leaving my heart here too. I’m so grateful that Heavenly Father sent me on a mission. It has been so hard but so incredible. I don’t understand a lot of things that happened on the mission, but I do know it has helped me grown so close to my Savior and that is the most important thing. I will never doubt that this is the true church and I will never leave it. Doesn’t matter if the times get tough. I will see you all soon. So I will tell you more about the week when I get home. See you in 3 days. Thanks for all the love and the support for the last 18 months. Even though how I WISH they weren’t coming to an end ;(. But anyways... see you soon

Hna Anderson 

I feel so super overwhelmed

Truth be told..... I DON’T WANT TO GO HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m excited to see you all and all that jazz. But I’m going to miss this crazy country and all the wonderful people I met. Being able to get up every day to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. To learn more about the atonement of Christ and the effect it has in lives of others. I will never doubt that the church is true! I can say now that the best convert I have is myself. The atonement has changed my life forever and I have such a great relationship with my Savior, better than it ever has been before. 

This week has been a good week. We have more ppl to teach and more investigators that are progressing and some that want to be baptized, but that will be the work of the other missionaries that come. But we are still hoping that Yeison will be baptized this Saturday. We will see what happens! 

Today I went and said goodbye to the ppl in the Viña. I got to see my converts. Rony has gotten huge! He is so tall! And my Maryliza, I missed that girl so much. When I saw her she said why did you leave me. It broke my heart. And it breaks my heart that I’m leaving leaving. I don’t want to go. It’s such a mix of feelings. 

But I’m probably not going to write a letter next week. Maybe some photos or something. But just some heads up. I’m going to be weird. Not just weird but super weird. This that are going to be weird for me.

·         walking in the house without sandals on

·         showering without sandals

·         putting the toilet paper in the toilet

·         talking in English

·         not talking to everyone about the gospel

·         not eating tortillas with the meals

·         basically everything that is normal for you guys

This I will not miss... eating tamales made of rice and chicken and rice. But seriously I want to cry my eyes out thinking about going home. But thanks to all for your love and support! It has meant so much to me! I will see you all soon

Love,

Hna Anderson 

Pictures of my last area

The weather is bipolar like me!

Well the weather here is nuts.. But hey at least there isn’t any snow! But one minute I’m dying of heat then the next minute its cold! It’s crazy. And that’s how I am. One minute I’m so stoked to be going home and the next minute I don’t ever want to leave. But I guess it doesn’t matter how I feel. I have to go home anyways. Two weeks folks. Its nuts I can’t believe it. 

Well this week was a great week! I stopped putting importance on what the dumb members say and focused on the work. We had such a good week and it was so needed! We are teaching a kid named Yeison (Jason). and he is so great and so positive. He went to church with us again yesterday and yesterday we taught him. The spirit was soooooo strong and so great! We are hoping he will get baptized the 22nd. We asked him why he likes to go to church with us and he was like, your church is so much different from all the other churches and I feel like it could be the true church. It was awesome! 

Also this week we went to find an investigator we haven’t seen for a while but she wasn’t home, only her kids. Her oldest kid is eight years old. There are three of them, a son and two daughters and they do everything for themselves. They make their own food, wash their own clothes and its hand washing the clothes.  In order to get the water they have to fetch it from a well, so we helped them fetch water. It was pretty fun. But on Sunday we stopped by and visited them and their mom was home. And it was so funny during the lesson there was a cow that was grazing the field and it went and ate their soap to wash the clothes. It made me feel like oh my goodness I’m going to miss this place. You’re in the middle of teaching and a cow eats your soap. When will that ever happen in the states? never!! 

But anyways that’s about it for the week! Thanks for all your love and support! 

Hna Anderson 

Boo

So this week was a pretty good week. I was feeling a little discouraged and on Thursday until we had interviews with president. That man is a mind reader! He told me everything I needed to hear. EVERYTHING! It’s like I just said a few words to him and he knew exactly what I needed to hear. Truth be told this area is super hard because of the members are very gossipy and make up a lot of rumors and it has been frustrating to deal with. But it’s fine because I only have three weeks left to deal with them. And it’s been helping me learn a lot and trust in the Lord. He knows our hearts and he knows the work my companion and I are doing. But seriously I was so amazed by my interview with the president. He is the best. 

So Halloween was a really fun day! Halloween really doesn’t exist here but it was a good day. There is a convert that took us to where her family lives. Her uncle one day was taking water out of his well and found a huge tooth in it. Turns out there were fossils of mammoths there. So we went to go see the remains and as well visit her family. We went with our bishop and his wife, but the family of the convert Hna Aura wasn’t home, so we went to explore the grounds a little bit. Then later we met her uncle. Every other Friday we eat with the bishop and his family, but because it was late we went to eat at a restaurant and we happened to run into the brother of Aura who was eating at the same restaurant, which was pretty sweet because we went to go visit him. But the ground where the mammoth was at was gorgeous! Also they sell the best cheese there. They call it mammoth cheese and its super famous here because its soooooo good!! 

Later that day we did a favor to help the bishops wife make tamales. Can I tell you, I never want to eat another tamale again in my life, they are disgusting. But afterwards we went and visited some more. The lights went out that day and a couple that are less active and lives together where going to get married on Friday. We got permission to go to their wedding. But when we got to the church building (that isn’t in our area) they weren’t there and the bishop of that ward told us they weren’t going to get married until 7:30 and the last bus to get back to our area is at 7pm so we had to go back which was kind of a bummer. That night there wasn’t much to do because our neighborhood threw a huge party. That night my companion and I made cookies in the microwave that turned out pretty good. It was a good day. 

The 1st of Nov is the day of the dead and hardly anyone is in their houses. But we had almuerzo with a sister named Evelyn. We are teaching her mom and her mom invited us to come and eat and she make cuchitos. I usually don’t like chuchitos but these were soooooooooooo good! And during this week we met the cutest old man. And on Saturday we ran into him and his son.  His daughter in law dyed his hair what was supposed to be black. But it didn’t turn out good so it ended being blue. Greatest ever. We took a pic with him. 

Sunday was fast and testimony meeting. I got up and bore my testimony and kind of gave the members a good one. I wanted to say more but the spirit was like noooo…Hna Anderson that’s not ok. But another member got up and machete the crap out of the ward. The ward planned a temple trip on the day of the dead and nobody went but him and some other ppl. He was like what are you guys doing in the cemetery? What is a bunch of flowers going to do for your dead? The best thing you can do is go to the temple on the day of the dead. Giving them flowers isn’t going to save them. But going to the temple will. It was sweet! I loved his testimony. That’s about it folks. Sorry for my rants about random stuff. My companion and I are working the best we can and we are always trying to help the other not feel discouraged. We will see what this week has in store for us. 

Thank you all for your love and support! Love you all 

Hna Anderson 

One month left!

This week was a weird week and a long one. So my ankle feels a lot better. It’s not all the way better, but it doesn’t get in the way of the work anymore, so I’m happy about that. I got a blessing on Tuesday because truth be told, I was scared they were going to send me home if the ankle didn’t get better. But in my blessing they said that I will finish my mission and that I have many more ppl to help. So that was great. But the health problems didn’t start there. I have been so sick to my stomach. I’m pretty dang sure I have parasites this time. So what does that mean? More poop samples! AWESOME... hahaha not. 

So yesterday was a pretty good day. We got a lot done!!! An investigator finally came to church yesterday! I actually met him last year.  His ex-girlfriend is a member and was going to church with her in the other stake in Hue Hue, but he wasn’t able to get baptized because his mom is super catholic. But now he is 18 so he doesn’t need permission anymore. But all the members think he is a member because he already knows so much about the church and he came to church in a tie and white shirt. So that was pretty awesome. 

Also yesterday we visited a kid that Hna Jose and her companion before me baptized. Guys... he is such a spiritual giant and he is nine years old. I was shocked by how much he knew and his great testimony. His mom is a member. She just went in-active for a few years but now all of them go to church. He got baptized in July and has almost finished the book of Mormon. 

So here in Guatemala they have a HUGE birthday party for their kids when they turn one. It’s a joke. And our ward mission leaders granddaughter turned one so they had a huge birthday party and our ward mission leader invited us to the birthday party. We only went afterwards because it was a crazy big party and we felt so uncomfortable being there. But the day before the party we went to see if we could help and they were making tamales. Let me tell you tamales are disgusting. When they are made of potato they are better but when they are made of rice I hate them. But everyone loves them here. But they make the tamales over big fires they are good with rice. And they were throwing their garbage in the fire and the ashes were entering the rice. And part of the garbage was used toilet paper. My companion and I were dying because of how gross that was. But we didn’t eat the tamales thank goodness! 

Well my companion and I are trying to try our best and work hard despite all the difficulties that have been going on. But I know Heavenly Father has been helping us move forward. That about all! Hope all is well with you guys. Have an amazing week! 

Hna Anderson 

que chafa!!!!

I’m not going to lie…this week was the pitts. Last Sunday my companion and I decided to fast to have more success in our area. And we were so ready to work. But Satan totally was a dummy and got in the way. My companion got sick on Sunday night so we had to enter in a little early because she had a really bad fever. Last week we wrote earlier so my companion would be able to go and rest and then we didn’t leave the house at all. Then on Tuesday when she was feeling better I randomly got sick to my stomach and we weren’t able to leave the house in the morning, because I needed the bathroom every two seconds. Then our new Hermana Leaders called us and told us that we now have to enter the house at 6pm if we don’t have a priesthood holder over the age of 18 to do appointments with us. All the sisters in Hue Hue now have that rule until president says we can stay out longer. And truth be told our ward doesn’t help out too much, so that’s kind of hard to find someone to visit with us. But Wednesday night my bad ankle started hurting me at night time and I thought the pain would go away quickly, but it hasn’t. It’s still there. We left and visited as much as we could and as much as my ankle would allow me. But I don’t know why it’s hurting me. I have been using a band and everything. But it’s not getting better. It’s not swollen anymore but it just hurts. So we will see what happens.  It’s just frustrating because I just want to work as hard as I can these last few weeks I have left. But doesn’t matter what happens I’m finishing my mission when my time is up. If the pain doesn’t stop I will go and get crutches and leave and visit using them. So please just pray that my ankle will get better! 

The good thing about this week is my companion and I bonded more.  We are also teaching a small family. They aren’t married. The thing is the husband drinks and his wife wants us to help him. And he was doing so good and told us he was going to go to church on Sunday. He went the whole week without drinking and drank Saturday night which was a bummer. But hopefully we will be able to help them out. 

Oh this morning was kind of fun. We went and did service for a sister that has Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s. She is so adorable. I love that woman so much. We are helping her clean out one for her rooms that has a bunch of stuff in it. But it was good to be able to help her out. Huntington’s is the saddest thing ever. It breaks my heart to see her get so frustrated sometimes with her health. Sometimes she isn’t able to take steps. But she keeps on fighting. 

But that’s about it folks. Sorry my letter was kind of complainy but it just wasn’t the best week in the world. But hopefully this week will be better. Love you all! 

Hna Anderson 

We just finished a transfer which means....

I’m not my last transfer! I can’t believe I only have six more weeks left! It’s nuts to think about! I don’t have changes and my companion doesn’t either. Which I’m not happy about but I’m not unhappy about it either. She has her character, sometimes we get along sometimes we don’t. But it’s fine and she is a really good missionary. She can teach so well and can tell ppl things so directly. So that is good! 

So this Saturday we had 2 baptisms. It was Roxana and Cecila. Finally they got baptized. I was so happy for them because you could tell that they were happy and that they have felt a change in their lives.

But at the same time, the baptism was such a mess because the brother-in-law of Roxana, who baptized them, is a controlling nut job! He has been manipulating the baptism date for such a long time. The reason why he manipulated it was so he could get his Priesthood rights back. So Roxana and Cecila would have to wait until they did. Basically he planned the whole baptism without including us, and was such a butt face. But thankfully, we will never have to work with him again. 

But just another quick story, so the other day we went to visit a member and her mom. And they gave us this pumpkin stuff. The thing is pumpkin here is green and it looked like dog diarrhea and it wasn’t that good. But it kind of made my stomach bad and the next day I had a little bit of diarrhea. We went to visit a recent convert that lives far away. To get to where she lives is 30 mins on bus. Well basically all of Hue Hue didn’t have water this last week and I needed the bathroom!! And she didn’t have any water. But I couldn’t stand it any longer and her bathroom was just behind a curtain outside. So after using the bathroom we had to go fetch water. It was so embarrassing. 

But that’s about it folks! I don’t really have too much to say anymore. I have reflecting on my mission a lot. It has been such a wonderful experience. I know I’m a better person because of it. And I have realized how close I have gotten to our Savior. Which I’m so glad I have been able to understand his atonement. Its real and its powerful! But have a wonderful week love you all.

Hna Anderson 

General Conference and a dead person

So this week we went to our district meeting and when we were on the bus going there we were at a bus stop and there was a dead guy. I’m pretty sure he got murdered. There was like a pool of blood. It was kind of freaky and nobody did anything about it! They just walked past him and gave him a look of pity and nothing more. It was nuts! But don’t worry I’m fine. Don’t freak out by this. 

General Conference rocked! On Saturday I watched it in English and on Sunday in Spanish. In the morning on Saturday we couldn’t get the image to work so we only listened to it. But in the afternoon we watched it. It was really great. I learned a lot. One of the seventies was the talk I needed! It was a huge machete but it helped me a lot. It went by waaaaaaaay too fast! But I enjoyed it. Sunday afternoon I was so grateful for Elder Bednar’s talk because our investigators that are going to get baptized this week were there and I think it helped them out a lot. So we hope everything goes well for their baptism. Also Sunday night we had a noche de hogar (FHE) with a sister and her family. Her mom isn’t a member and it turned out really great. So that was fun! 

Today I went and visited some ppl in the Viña. It was sooo good to see them! I wasn’t able to find Dorita my first convert because she moved houses and I didn’t have time to figure out where she was living. But how I miss the Viña! Also we had a zone activity. And an elder made food from Honduras for us. It was really good. 

But truth be told. I don’t really have anything to say anymore. So I will send pictures. But hope you all have a great week! Love you lots

Hna Anderson 

16 months down – 2 more to go

Well today I have 16 months on the mission. I totally forgot when our district leader sent us a message saying happy 16 months. I can’t believe how fast time goes! I really don’t feel like I have 16 months and I don’t really feel like I only have 2 months left but whatever. I will enjoy every minute of it. 

So this week was all about the temple, it was such a spiritually uplifting week. On Wednesday we had a multi-zone conference. It was so awesome. President Smith is so spiritual. I love listening to him. He talked about new goals that he has for the mission. He taught us that we need to focus on the end point which is our investigators.  Go to the temple because our purpose as missionaries is to invite ppl to come unto Christ but they can’t fully come unto him if they don’t go to the temple. They talked about a ton of awesome stuff. I was so spiritually uplifted and thought to myself why wasn’t President Smith my president when I started the mission. He will be such a great mission president for this mission and is. But I know he will help out the mission a lot. When I listen to him I feel like I’m listening to one of the 70’s or an apostle. He is great. 

On Friday we went to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!! Let me tell you it was the best and sooooo needed! We got a private bus for the whole zone which was so much better. Even though there where a ton of annoying gringos in my zone that wouldn’t shut up during the car ride. I went to the temple with some questions and got some answers. But one thing I wasn’t even thinking about and Heavenly Father gave me was peace about finishing my mission and He let me know that maybe my mission as a full time missionary is ending but when I get home a whole new mission is waiting for me. Which made me feel a lot better and a lot more at peace which was so great. 

Toto news- Yeni got married!! yay!!!! I’m so happy about that. It sounds like it was stressful planning it out but it all worked out ok. 

Yesterday was a good day at church I enjoyed it a lot. Especially Relief Society where a sister shared such a good lesson. It was fantastic and it was about the temple and missionary work, which was great. Also my companion and I went to the Women’s Conference. If you haven’t seen it go and watch it right now! It was so amazing and I felt like it was focusing on the temple. We are so unbelievably blessed to have temples. Especially because it helps us become closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. 

So this week we went and visited a recent convert. She is kind of nuts and kind of stresses me out because she is always stressing out. But we asked her what we could help her with and she was like fold my baby’s clothes. So I folded all of them and then I went into her baby’s room and she was like my baby’s closet is a mess.  Can you organize and fold all the clothes for me? Can I just tell you I HATE folding baby clothes? They are just so tiny and it’s so hard. But it kind of made me laugh because we helped fold baby clothes last week and I thought to myself I never want to fold them again and then this happened hahaha. Oops. 

Yesterday we made real Mexican tacos with a family. Can I just say they were the best tacos I have ever had in my life!!! while we were cooking though there was a ton of huge ants and the sister saw them and was like… oh there’s ants, find a few more and we will cook them up. Let me tell you I thought that was hilarious. In place of freaking out she was like yeah let’s eat them! Oh Guatemala. 

But anyways. Can I just say how much I love the temple? Let us never take them for granted. I know they truly are the house of the Lord and is the only way we can know and better understand the atonement of our savior Jesus Christ. 

But have a wonderful week and a wonderful general conference! I’m so excited for conference!!! woohoo!!!! Love you all 

Hermana Anderson 

Trying to get things going around here

So this week was really interesting... but something really sucky happened this morning.  I was washing my clothes and we don’t have a pila so I was washing them in the kitchen sink and I finished and hung them all up to dry when the clothes line fell and basically of my clothes were covered in dirt.  It was the worst. I was ticked. 

Another side note I asked my companion how to say barbwire in Spanish and it is ‘alambre de peas’ but it sounds like pooa** it made me laugh so hard. It’s like swearing without swearing. hahaha 

Also can’t believe I got my flight plans. I don’t really understand it. But I guess I’m going home pretty soon its nuts! 

So this week was supposed to be the baptism of Chris. And it turns out that president made a new rule that we aren’t allowed to go back to our old areas for baptisms. Chris wanted an elder to baptize him and wanted me there. But both of us weren’t able to come. It made him so sad and so deceived that he decided not to get baptized. That was very disappointing. After all the work we did with him. I couldn’t believe. I still don’t believe it. And now he doesn’t know if he wants anything with the church anymore which was pretty disappointing. I don’t know what to think about this. But we gotta keep on moving on. 

But I found a scripture in Acts:14:22 that is one of my favorites:

Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. 

I love it because it shows us that we need tribulations in order to return to live with our Heavenly Father and I know what happened to Chris is just another tribulation he needs to go through. I know when he gets baptized it will be a real conversion. And I know he will be such a great leader in this church. 

This week I got a cold which is kind of a bummer. I’m so sick of colds. But I’m almost better thank goodness. Everything is going good here. We are trying our best to find more investigators to teach because we don’t have a lot right now. This area is a little different and I haven’t quite figured it out yet. So we will see what we can do. 

So we had a baptism for this coming Saturday with Roxana and Cecilia but they love changing the dates. Now they are going to get baptized in October so her little daughter can get her blessing on the same day they get confirmed. So hopefully they will get baptized in October! 

With every week I’m kind of running out of things to say. It’s been pretty hot here. And it rains at night but not a lot thank goodness. But anyways love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

Hna Anderson