Last P-day in the CCM!

Hola Familia!

This time next week I will be heading to Quetzaltenango!! It’s insane; I am terrified, but so excited all at the same time!! Last P-day was an absolute blast! We went on a bus tour of Guatemala and it was so funny to hear everyone’s reaction to what Guatemala really looks like. We saw a guy on a ladder hanging on to the power lines fixing them. It brought back good memories.

Then afterwards we went to this map place and it’s a giant structure of Central America to perfect scale. The measurements were done by some dude from forever ago. We got our cameras that day and I took a ton of pictures it was the best! After that we went to the market. That was fun; I didn't buy anything considering Guatemala is my home now and I already had the market experience. Our last stop was a cathedral and then we went back home.

The trip was an absolute blast—take that Provo MTC! Words can’t describe how happy I am that I am in the Guatemala MTC. We are all super close to everyone and I have the best friends in the world here. They feel like family, so I am sad to be leaving them.

We also found out on P-day that Hermana Alvadero is no longer our night teacher. She got switched to the mornings. I was so upset about it at first, but she is now our tutor and hangs out with us all the time. We also got a new schedule and we have sports at night, so she wouldn't have been teaching for long anyways. We still have Hermano Malnado though, which is good.

We got another night teacher named Hermana Melgar. She makes us work and from 4-7:30 PM and speak only in Spanish. If you speak even one word in English, you get one of your “papers” taken away. There’s a winner every night, so if you get it taken away, then you can’t win.* Speaking only in Spanish is fun, but hard. I accidentally said a bad word in Spanish: punta without the n (puta means b**** in English).

On Sunday our district sang in sacrament and we rocked it. And I made it through the hunger games this week and next week is fast Sunday, so I don’t have to speak in church! Yay! Sundays are one of my favorite days though because they are so spiritually uplifting and I always learn so much. We had a lesson about the promises of obedience by President Nicholaysen. It was awesome and made me rededicate myself. We have Relief Society two times on Sunday kind of, and Sister Brinton, one of the couple missionaries, spoke—she is so cute. She and her husband remind me of John and Vibeke (Utah ward neighbors). By the way, they have the best banana bread here in the whole world.

Oh yeah here’s a story I forgot to tell you last week. Our classroom is in the chapel, and we get to walk by the temple every day, it rocks. Anyways, one of the elders found a dead cockroach in the chapel, and Elder Dalton is absolutely terrified of bugs, so I said, “Hey put it in Elder Dalton’s scriptures.” Mean I know, but it was absolutely hilarious. Elder Dalton was teaching, and then when he came back and opened up his scriptures, he found it and started flipping out. Another elder picked up his scriptures and the cockroach after Dalton ran out of the church building. Then the elder pretended to throw the cockroach out the window, but actually put it back in Elder Dalton’s stuff. So flipping hilarious.

Another story I forgot to tell you about was one of my watches stopped working cause I dropped it on accident, so I prayed for it to work again. When I was trying to get it to work, Hermana Garis was like, “hey let me see it,” so I threw it over to her and she dropped it. Then she said, “maybe the jolt of the fall will make it work now,” and when she picked it up, it was ticking. Miracles people, miracles. Also the other week Hermana Garis sniffed cayenne pepper to help her headaches—funniest thing I ever did see. Also her cousin won Miss Pleasant Grove when Kylee was in it. Small world.

I am learning so much. One of the things I have learned is that I hate Spanish. It’s coming to me, but it’s hard and I always speak it the best when I am teaching sometimes. Teaching is hard, especially when you know what you want to say, but you can’t say it in Spanish. English-speaking missions have it soooo easy.

Then it’s weird, a bunch of sisters here have been telling me how much they look up to me. I got a note from two on my bed and it was the sweetest thing ever. I have no idea why they think that. It just makes me want to work harder since people are watching the things I do. Random side note: we now have to wear our name tags on the right side instead of on the left. It’s the weirdest thing in the world. The Provo MTC told us to do that because apparently it helps people see your name better when you shake their hands.

Thanks for your letters; I couldn’t reply back to all of the emails. I will try to next week sometime. Lillian, you walk with determination and I will write you back next week. Your letter was beautiful thank you.

Ali I can’t believe you sent me a picture of Simon’s butt! I was covering it up so my whole district didn't see it. The blog is beautiful, thanks Ali. I’m pretty sure it’s the best in the world. I am glad you are taping Golden Girls for Alison’s work dad, and I am glad Ali is hanging in there with her job. I don’t know if you guys have been dearelder-ing me because I haven’t got any, but it’s ok if you don’t. How is Jordan doing? Haven’t heard much about him.

Oh yeah, we have this thing called CRE and we teach random people from the street, and usually the people around the temple. There are always tons of families there getting sealed, it’s the greatest thing in the world. Anyways CRE went well for the first time in my life and the spirit was totally there and I knew what to say and what to ask it was awesome. It was great, we were teaching a less-active, but he was really a RM and he spoke some Spanish and he said we did great. It was definitely a confidence booster. Well I am out of time.

Looooove you, thanks for your prayers and support!

Hermana Anderson

*This is what Lindsie wrote originally: “…if you speak a word in ingles, you get one of your ´papers taken away then we have a winner everynight its fun but hard.” So I’m assuming they get papers and they can trade in the “papers” for rewards. I don’t know though.